Going into the 2025 baseball season, there are several questions about the Arkansas Razorbacks‘ starting rotation. Those are important questions to answer, but head coach Dave Van Horn knows that he has several options to choose from.
While Van Horn didn’t want to commit to anyone ahead of the season, he did share some options that Arkansas has and broadly explained where the rotation stands.
“We’re going to let them prove it to us a little more,” Dave Van Horn said. “We saw a lot of good things in the fall and then off-season. I think just because we’ve been around Gabe Gaeckle so much, had him here, we feel like that he will definitely be a starter. [Zach] Root looks like a starter. Gage Wood. [Landon] Beidelschies. Those are all possibilities, and there are some other guys in there now.”
Gaeckle, who Van Horn shared will be a starter, is a right-handed sophomore who appeared in 22 games out of the bullpen last season. He had a 2.32 ERA in 42.2 innings pitched, striking out 57 while only walking 19 batters. Then, Root, another pitcher in a good position to start, is a left-handed junior who transferred in from ECU. Last season, he made 13 appearances and 12 starts, pitching 68.1 innings with a 3.56 ERA. He did that while striking out 76 batters and walking another 21.
As for Gage Wood and Landon Beidelschies, they both started games last season. In Wood’s case, it was three starts in 22 appearances with a 4.46 ERA. Then, Beidelschies comes as a transfer from Ohio State where he started 15 games with a 4.15 ERA.
“But the first weekend, we play four games, which I think is a good thing for this team, and then head down to Texas. If you look at our schedule, there aren’t a lot of games where you can go, ‘Okay, we’re going to experiment with that freshman out there.’ Although, in some cases with freshmen, it’s not an experiment. They’re pretty darn good. I mean, yeah, kind of tip-toeing around the question, but I mentioned four guys at the top and they’ll battle for those jobs to start out.”
Beyond those four pitchers, Arkansas has other options. Ben Bybee, Will McEntire, Cole Gibler, Tag Andrews, and Aidan Jimenez could all potentially start games for the Razorbacks. Regardless, it gives Dave Van Horn options in the rotation and the bullpen.
Typically, teams rely on three starters for the three-game weekend series that they play during each of those games. Another starter can be turned to for a weekday game. So, Dave Van Horn will want to be confident in that rotation by Friday, February 14th when they open the season at home against Washington State.
