After resurgent season, what are Mississippi State baseball’s biggest needs?

There’s no denying that Mississippi State made significant progress this spring, rebounding from two seasons without postseason play to return to the NCAA Tournament and finish fifth in a deep Southeastern Conference.

But in today’s college baseball landscape, top teams must deal with a perpetual state of roster churn as players choose to enter the transfer portal or leave to begin playing professionally. And the Bulldogs’ roster will almost certainly look very different in 2025 as they look to make it back to the Men’s College World Series for the first time since winning the 2021 national title.

MSU’s weekend rotation at the beginning of the season, consisting of Nate Dohm, Khal Stephen and Jurrangelo Cijntje, are all likely to be selected in the top 200 picks of next month’s MLB Draft, with Cijntje a potential first-rounder. The same goes for sluggers Dakota Jordan and Hunter Hines, who combined for nearly half of the Bulldogs’ home runs this season.

“We need more depth offensively,” head coach Chris Lemonis said after MSU’s season-ending defeat against Virginia on Sunday night. “That was one of the big areas. You need frontline pitching. We had that this year. But you have to go back out and find more every year.”

Pitching coach Justin Parker, hired away from South Carolina last summer, helped shave nearly three full runs off the Bulldogs’ team ERA from 2023. Stephen, coming off an up-and-down season in his lone year in Purdue’s starting rotation, turned into a First-Team All-SEC pitcher and leads the conference in innings pitched. Cijntje posted an 8.10 ERA as a freshman but lowered that mark to 3.67 this year and is tied for third in the SEC in strikeouts.

Two of MSU’s most reliable relievers, Tyson Hardin and Tyler Davis, were among the dregs of the Bulldogs’ pitching staff last season before emerging as Lemonis’ most trusted late-inning options this year in SEC play and the postseason. Brooks Auger and Pico Kohn, both coming off Tommy John surgery, took on big roles down the stretch as well.

Those success stories, as long as Parker sticks around, should make MSU an attractive destination for both established arms in the transfer portal and pitchers looking for a fresh start.

“We’re already experiencing that as we talk to kids, the graduates and the ones who went in already,” Lemonis said. “We’re in a (much) better spot. You have to win all phases of recruiting, the draft, the high school, the portal kids, keeping your own team together. It’s just a different world.”

Besides Jordan and Hines, the Bulldogs will also need to replace several other starting position players — center fielder Connor Hujsak, second baseman Amani Larry and third baseman Logan Kohler are out of NCAA eligibility, as are catchers Joe Powell and Johnny Long. Shortstop David Mershon and left fielder Bryce Chance are also draft-eligible.

MSU did land some impact transfers last offseason, Stephen and Kohler chief among them, as well as pitcher Cam Schuelke from the junior college ranks. But the Bulldogs struck out on the biggest fish in the portal, including Mississippi product Braden Montgomery, who chose Texas A&M after spending his first two years at Stanford.

The incoming freshman class is ranked 19th by Perfect Game, with a pair of top-100 prospects. But 10 SEC teams are ahead of MSU in the recruiting rankings, with rival Ole Miss at No. 7.

“We have a good high school group that will be going into the draft, and some of these guys in our clubhouse going into the draft,” Lemonis said. “Right now every team in the country feels like their team is so liquid with where we are with the NCAA. There’s a big month ahead of us.”

MSU