photo by: Emma Crouch/Kansas Athletics

Kansas head coach Dan Fitzgerald instructs his team during practice at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence, on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.

Kansas baseball head coach Dan Fitzgerald is no stranger to roster turnover.

Most notably, he dealt with a brand-new roster when he arrived in Lawrence two years ago, ahead of his debut with the Jayhawks. But Fitzgerald’s history working with large groups of new players stretches much further into his past.

“This is exactly what we did in junior college every year,” he told the Journal-World in a recent interview. “This is what we had to do multiple times in my time at Dallas Baptist University. We had monster draft classes and had to basically replace a whole team. When I was at LSU, that was a reboot as well where we had to bring in huge classes.

“So I think it’s kind of the nature of the beast, in (that) it’s really not that much different from what we’ve always tried to do as coaches.”

That experience will serve Fitzgerald well over the course of this offseason. He has now guided a team with twice as many newcomers as returnees — 28 compared to 14 — through the majority of its fall practice schedule, with four months to go ahead of the 2025 season. The Jayhawks will play SIUE in an exhibition at Hoglund Ballpark on Saturday at noon.

One of the principal reasons why the roster experienced such an overhaul, of course, was the MLB Draft in July. Fitzgerald remembered remarking at one point over the summer that he knew he wouldn’t either keep everyone or lose everyone. It would be somewhere in between, or so he thought.

“I was totally wrong,” he said. “We literally lost everyone in the draft. The only one we didn’t lose is Brooksy and that’s because he was hurt.”

Indeed, redshirt senior third baseman Michael Brooks suffered a late-season broken hand and missed time. He’s now one of several returning players Fitzgerald can look to for help imparting the Jayhawks’ culture to more than two dozen newcomers.

“The fun part is in year three, there are plenty of guys who just model that on a daily basis,” he said. “They don’t have to look far. You know, Michael Brooks has been with us every single day of the journey. Mike Koszewski’s been with us every day of the journey. Thaniel Trumper’s been with us every day of the journey. So we’ve got a handful of guys who know it well and have lived it and have modeled it, and I think that speaks louder than anything I can say to them.”

Fitzgerald said he “very specifically hired guys that were excellent recruiters and excellent at development” for his staff because he anticipated drafts and offseasons like this one that would require replenishing the roster. The exact composition of his new group of 28 is a wide-ranging mix — a combination of a few high school signees, another top-ranked junior-college class and a variety of very experienced transfers from four-year colleges.

As Fitzgerald put it, recruiting has changed a lot in that it no longer requires simply being a “two-tier person” — focused on high school and JUCOs — but also a facility with portal transfers, graduate transfers and international recruits.

Many of the new Jayhawks this year are known quantities because they have years of experience in solid baseball programs. In the field alone, KU brought in players like outfielder Tommy Barth, infielder Brady Counsell and catcher Ian Francis who were accomplished three-year starters at East Tennessee State, Minnesota and Youngstown State, respectively.

“They’re old but they’re still really motivated,” Fitzgerald said, “because they’re getting their last shot and they’re getting to do it at an incredible school in a great conference.”

That isn’t the only thing that has become appealing about the prospect of playing at KU. The results of the 2024 draft, which saw six players get drafted and sign with professional teams and two more catch on as undrafted free agents, have resonated in clubhouses across the country. It included players like Ethan Lanthier (from St. Cloud State) and Evan Shaw (from Cochise College) who transferred to KU for a single year and parlayed it into a pro opportunity.

“Last year’s draft caught the attention of a lot of people, but specifically a lot of recruits,” Fitzgerald said. “There are a lot of junior college dugouts right now that are well aware of the path of some of the guys from junior college to Kansas to professional baseball.”

One area in which KU’s recruiting might be somewhat reduced in years ahead is in the high school ranks. Fitzgerald said he expects that to be the case at most programs, due to the pending House v. NCAA settlement which will reduce baseball roster limits from 40 to 34.

While KU’s staff has recruited so extensively from JUCOs in part because it was playing catch-up on the first couple high school classes after it came in, the Jayhawks did still manage to develop back-to-back conference freshmen of the year in Kodey Shojinaga and Dominic Voegele, as Fitzgerald points out.

photo by: Emma Crouch/Kansas Athletics

Kansas catcher Ian Francis throws the ball during practice on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Lawrence.

photo by: Bailey Thompson/Kansas Athletics

Kansas infielder Brady Counsell fields a ball during practice on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024, in Lawrence.

Pitching outlook

Speaking of Voegele, the sophomore right-handed pitcher is set to take on a critical role as KU’s Friday night starter, Fitzgerald said. Cooper Moore, who impressed as a freshman reliever, is “right there with him” as an additional starting option. Otherwise, there’s plenty of competition in the clubhouse to start next year.

KU restocked its bullpen with a wide array of right-handed pitchers in the offseason, including transfers like Jake Cubbler (USC Upstate), Eric Lin (South Alabama), Connor Maggi (Gardner-Webb), Malakai Vetock (Creighton) and a variety of JUCO additions. One of the most important additions of all in 2025 will be a player who was already on the roster, Trumper, one of the national leaders in appearances in 2023 who missed almost all of last season.

The Jayhawks rather notably did not add any lefties following the conclusion of the 2024 campaign. Their roster features incoming long-signed JUCO transfers Porter Conn and Naun Haro, along with returnees Gavin Brasosky and Brigden Parker.

“We’ve got four,” he said. “I’d love to have 14. The reality is, the splits, it used to be if a lefty came in and you had a lefty in the bullpen you just brought him in. Baseball’s changed so much where splits don’t necessarily play like that anymore.”

Citing the Kansas City Royals’ closer Lucas Erceg as an example, he said that a right-handed pitcher with a nasty change-up can thrive against left-handed batters.

“It wasn’t for lack of trying that there aren’t more lefties,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s just, those guys are unicorns, but I feel good about it because (pitching coach Brandon) Scott’s done a really good job with a bunch of right-handed changeups.”

The one “undeniable” advantage lefties provide, Fitzgerald added, is their ability to slow down baserunning.

photo by: Emma Crouch/Kansas Athletics

Kansas head coach Dan Fitzgerald during practice at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence, on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024.