An exceedingly rare Tallahassee snow storm kept us from talking to Florida State head baseball coach Link Jarrett before his team began preseason practice over the weekend.

But with a few scrimmages under his team's belt, Jarrett addressed the media Tuesday morning, discussing all aspects of his 2025 team which will look to make a second consecutive trip to the College World Series in Omaha for the first time in over 20 years.

Here are three takeaways from Jarrett's introductory press conference about his team which is set to begin the 2025 season Feb. 14 vs. James Madison as a consensus top-10 team.

It certainly seems that adding more pitching depth was one of the primary focuses of the FSU coaching staff this offseason.

The Seminoles' pitching depth was severely tested in 2024 when two of their three weekend starters were knocked out of the rotation by injuries early in ACC play and neither ever fully reclaimed those spots. A few other injuries to the pitching staff before and during the season seriously strained the Seminoles' depth on the mound.

To help counteract that, FSU brought in five D-I transfer pitchers and two junior-college transfer pitchers to bolster their mound depth and give the team plenty of options to be able to mix and match arms in high-leverage spots.

In terms of projecting the weekend rotation, Jarrett said they are still extending eight or nine guys as possible starters a few weeks out from the start of the season.

The obvious top-of-the-rotation pitcher will be Jamie Arnold, who was named Baseball America's Preseason Pitcher of the Year earlier this month after a breakthrough 2024 season earned him first-team All-American honors.

"Jamie has been dynamic and has continued to mature and grow into the art of what he's doing on the mound," Jarrett said of Arnold. "I think the change-up will help him in the hopes of adding a pitch that he's going to use a fair amount, allows him to still be consistent with the other two that got him to be in the conversation he's in right now."

Aside from Arnold, there's little certainty about who else will be in the rotation. Two names who Jarrett especially highlighted, though, are a pair of new transfer additions.

USF transfer lefty Joey Volini was the first other name that Jarrett mentioned. Volini made his return from Tommy John surgery last February in a midweek game at FSU, allowing one run over two innings of relief work. Over two seasons of action at USF surrounding his injury, Volini had a 4.05 ERA over 40 innings of work, striking out 38 guys while walking 19.

While only three of his 24 career appearances were starts and he's never thrown more than four innings at the collegiate level, he has set himself apart as one of FSU's most reliable arms this offseason.

"Joey Volini has been as consistent as any left-handed arm I've had in a fall preseason setting, he really has. He's a transfer from South Florida, he was banged up a little bit, came through his Tommy John and now he's back and it's been fun to watch him navigate," Jarrett said. "There's four pitches in play. It's not maybe the fastball velocity that you see out of Arnold or (Wes) Mendes or some of the other guys, but the pitchability has been there. We haven't gotten into lengthy starts and the season yet, but you sure like what you see when you look in the crystal ball with Volini."

Mendes, another Tampa native and left-handed pitcher who joined the Seminoles this offseason as a sophomore after one season at Ole Miss, has stuff that could put him in the conversation with Arnold for some of the best on the FSU staff and possibly even in the country. The battle with him in his first FSU offseason has been trying to rein in his power for somewhat reliable control.

"Wes Mendes, thoroughbred-type horse. I was talking to him yesterday, it's like that horse that's out in the field that's running around and you want to get that horse in that stable and get that horse acclimated and then you run the derby with that thoroughbred. I feel like that's what Wes is. It is a dynamic, downhill, explosive fastball with some velo. The secondary packages are really good. It's just the command and can we get that saddle on that horse and manage what we're doing," Jarrett said. “Micah (Posey) has moved him along. I've seen growth from the fall to what we saw last weekend and these next two will provide more insight as to how that looks."

Jarrett mentioned a few other guys like sophomores Brady Louck, Hudson Rowan and John Abraham, Jacksonville transfers Evan Chrest and Peyton Prescott and even UCF transfer Jacob Marlowe, who missed the entire 2024 season due to a pair of heart surgeries, as candidates for starting roles.

All that to say, it sounds like FSU is not lacking in options and should enter 2025 with a wider array of options on the mound.

"That's a lot of names and that's a good thing," Jarrett said.

FSU made some defensive sacrifices on its 2024 team for some serious pop at the corner outfield spots.

James Tibbs III and Jaime Ferrer mashed a combined 50 home runs and 162 runs batted in while hitting a combined .341. While neither of them were bad defensive players by any means, they couldn't have played centerfield well and were somewhat limited in their movement.

Jarrett now believes his FSU team will enter the 2025 season with an outfield unlike possibly any he has previously coached in his career. He believes the Seminoles have a large group of outfielders capable of playing centerfield, giving the team some serious athleticism and versatility at the three outfield spots.

"I don't know in my time that I've had the capabilities in the outfield to range and run like I see here. I've had some really good outfields in my time, but this is very unique," Jarrett said. "Last year's outfield was very dynamic, it was unique. I think it was more oriented on the offensive side and the firepower was clearly there. But this is also a unique profile of outfielders. We have a lot of guys that can go play center field, not just here but I think anywhere. They're pretty talented and there's some get up and go and run that you don't see. It's here and it's very competitive."

It sounds like Max Williams will remain in centerfield in his second season with the program. He took over that role midway through the 2024 season and displayed some natural instincts for the spot and impressive athleticism for his 6-foot-2, 207-pound frame.

At the corner spots, Texas Tech transfer Gage Harrelson is in the conversation to start after playing largely centerfield the last two seasons for the Red Raiders.

"Gage Harrelson, who was at Texas Tech, you saw him in the fall, has been a center fielder, can go get and likes to play," Jarrett said. "He is a scrappy, rangy, lanky, left-handed bat that's got a little juice in there."

Northwest Florida State College transfer Chase Williams is also pushing for a starting spot in the outfield and has impressed Jarrett with his effort and some of the ridiculous catches he's made or attempted to make throughout the offseason.

"If you come watch practice, at some point he's going to try to climb up over the wall and run it down and crash and jump and climb into the scoreboard net and catch balls that are going out," Jarrett said of Williams. "It's fun to watch. Those guys could all clearly play centerfield."

Other contenders for outfield playing time are redshirt freshman Brody DeLamielleure, JUCO transfer Blaydon Plain -- who could also contribute at first base -- and BJ Gibson, who will be with the baseball team this season as well after playing receiver for the football team last fall.

A common theme between these players seems to be how highly Jarrett views their defense. After seeing how much of a difference an athletic set of outfielders can make in Omaha, Jarrett seems to be viewing that more highly entering the 2025 season.

"You want to be tough to score on. The good teams are tough to score on and then your offensive side, you have to figure it out," Jarrett said. "Part of being tough to score on is can you grab extra base hits and turn those into outs? That's a great way to be tough to score on is if you can run things down."

While FSU is not lacking in pitching options entering the 2025 season, it sounds like it will still be without one of its top returning options for the foreseeable future.

Jarrett said early in his press conference that he doesn't expect junior right-handed pitcher Cam Leiter will be available early in the season.

"Cam's got a significant rehab so there's not even a discussion right now for that one," Jarrett said.

A year ago, it was Leiter, not Jamie Arnold, who entered the 2024 season with more hype. The UCF transfer who has some of the highest velocity on FSU's pitching staff began the year as FSU's Friday starter, putting up a 4.63 ERA over seven starts and 35 innings before he was removed from the rotation ahead of the Boston College series due to an injury.

While Leiter tried to work his way back to a return and came close to being available during the postseason, he suffered a setback during a bullpen session and was shut down for the remainder of the season.

Leiter suffered another setback during fall ball, undergoing a procedure in October according to a tweet he shared on X.

It remains unclear if or when Jarrett expects Leiter to be available once more for the Seminoles, but at least to the start the season, it seems clear that Leiter will be sidelined as he continues to try to work his way back to the mound.

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