Three FSU baseball storylines entering preseason camp

In three weeks' time, Florida State baseball's 2024 season will be underway.

For second-year head coach Link Jarrett, it's a chance to move past an underwhelming 23-31 season where the Seminoles had limited depth, poor injury luck and saw the program's 44-year NCAA Tournament streak come to an end.

Entering this preseason, FSU is in much better shape across the roster. It returns a number of major contributors from last year's team and added a class of transfer additions, which D1Baseball ranked as the fifth-best in the country.

But before the Seminoles begin their 2024 campaign Feb. 16 vs. Butler, they have three weeks of preseason camp to refine their game.

Here are three storylines to monitor as FSU's preseason camp gets underway on Friday.

Entering the 2023 season, FSU's pitching depth was in rough shape with some major question marks. So much so that FSU decided to hold two of its most reliable arms, Wyatt Crowell and Conner Whittaker, out of the weekend rotation for them to instead serve as high-leverage, extended bullpen arms.

Now 12 months later, FSU's pitching depth is in much better shape. Jarrett said Friday during his media availability that the Seminoles will start preseason camp stretching out six pitchers to be potential starters.

"I think the dynamic nature of some of the things you'll see out of the pitching staff are really refreshing. We have some more depth," Jarrett said. "We have to stay healthy. This revolves around their health, the pitchers, more than anything else. But I really like the progress I've seen, especially on the pitching staff."

Jarrett didn't name any of those six candidates in his interview Friday, but some of them seem easy to deduce.

Whittaker (4.33 ERA over 79 innings last season) figures to factor into the conversation. So does sophomore lefty Jamie Arnold, who struggled to stay in the weekend rotation as a freshman but showed remarkable growth both in the Cape Cod League and this past fall.

A few of FSU's transfer additions are also expected to contend for starting jobs. Florida transfer Yoel Tejada Jr. struggled in his freshman season at UF with a 5.56 ERA over 22.2 innings, but has impressive stuff and looked improved in the fall. UCF transfer Cam Leiter led the Knights last spring with 80 strikeouts over 56.2 innings as a freshman and also turned heads in his first fall at FSU after transferring in.

Additionally, FSU has a few starting candidates who transferred in from junior colleges this offseason. Fireballer Gavin Adams chose the Seminoles over the Washington Nationals, who drafted him last summer in the 11th round. Adams touched 100 miles per hour on the mound last fall, but struggled some with his control. If he figures that aspect out, he has the stuff to be a frontline starter for the Seminoles and potentially a very high draft pick next summer.

Fellow junior-college transfer Carson Roberts also appears to be a candidate based on fall ball and there could be a surprise candidate or two thrown in for good measure.

Jarrett said Friday that decisions will need to start being made after the second weekend of scrimmages next week. Whoever doesn't win out will certainly claim key bullpen roles.

For now, though, it's worth remarking on how much better a spot FSU is in entering this season on the mound.

Colton Vincent was an ironman behind plate for the Seminoles last season.

In his final season of college ball, Vincent appeared in all 54 of FSU's games and started 51 of them. While that heavy usage didn't take his production, posting a .273 batting average, it's hardly the norm for catchers at this level where a rotation is more frequently used.

Jarrett is, I'm sure, grateful for the stability that Vincent provided back there last season. However, I'm sure he is also glad about having a deeper rotation of players behind the plate to keep everyone fresher over the course of the upcoming season.

West Virginia transfer McGwire Holbrook was expected to be a platoon catcher alongside Vincent after transferring to FSU ahead of the 2023 season. However, a few injuries limited him to just three starts at catcher while the other 18 came at designated hitter. After hitting .318 over two seasons at WVU, a healthier Holbrook now appears ready for a larger role behind the plate.

TCC transfer catcher Marco Dinges was one of the surprises of the fall for the Seminoles. The sophomore mashed home runs on a regular basis during the offseason and brings some impressive pop to the lineup. He's played his way into likely having some kind of rotational role in his first season at FSU as well.

FSU also has Alabama catcher transfer/Tallahassee native Jaxson West, who joined the program this offseason, and sophomore catcher Lance Trippel as options behind the plate.

These four could all see the field in spurts and this flexibility will allow Jarrett and the coaching staff to better play matchups at the catcher spot depending on the handedness of the pitcher they are facing that day.

Coaching transitions nowadays often are accompanied by a roster upheaval of sorts.

That was certainly the case at FSU, where a number of older players left the program and left Jarrett and his staff with an extremely young roster for their first season in Tallahassee.

The 2023 FSU team had only two seniors and nine juniors on its roster, meaning a great deal of younger, less experienced players had to take on larger roles.

While that team took its lumps, it came out the other side much more experienced and ready for leadership roles. Guys like Whittaker, outfielders James Tibbs and Jaime Ferrer and even rising sophomore third baseman Cam Smith were forced into critical roles last spring and are now more comfortable as leaders because of this.

FSU also added some experience through the transfer portal with fifth-year senior first baseman Daniel Cantu transferring from USF and fifth-year senior pitcher Noah Short transferring from West Virginia.

These various factors have Jarrett feeling more confident in his team's leadership entering his second season as head coach.

"Tibbs and Ferrer and Whittaker and Cam, you have so much more of a sense of the confidence level of those guys to take charge. Their production speaks and then their verbalities speak, what they're saying in that locker room, how they carry themselves," Jarrett said. "That means something, but you have to go out there on the field day by day and practice and perform and you have to produce in games. Clearly, those guys check all those boxes."

Before the season officially gets underway the weekend of Feb. 16, FSU will be hosting a Fan Day event the weekend before.

FSU announced Friday that its annual Fan Day scrimmage at Dick Howser Stadium will be held Saturday, Feb. 10. Doors will open at noon and the nine-inning scrimmage will begin at 1 p.m. followed by an autograph session with the team.