photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas junior Tyson LeBlanc celebrates as he rounds the bases during the Jayhawks' NCAA tournament game against Arkansas on Sunday, May 31, 2026, at Hoglund Ballpark in Lawrence.

In his previous stops as a baseball coach, Dan Fitzgerald worked with some talented players who went on to great success.

Fitzgerald recruited Scott Schebler, from Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Des Moines Area Community College in what he described to The Athletic as his biggest recruiting find; Schebler went on to a seven-year major-league career, primarily with the Cincinnati Reds. Later, as an assistant at LSU, Fitzgerald coached Jacob Berry and Dylan Crews, who became top-10 picks in the MLB Draft.

Those players, Fitzgerald acknowledged on his “Hawk Talk” radio show on Monday night, might be more “tooled up” than Tyson LeBlanc. But LeBlanc, the former LSU Eunice shortstop now headed for the pros himself after one year at Kansas, stands apart from the rest.

“I can very comfortably say he’s the best baseball player I’ve ever coached,” Fitzgerald said.

The native of Maurice, Louisiana, left his mark with the Jayhawks, most notably by setting the school’s single-season home run record with 25 homers, including three massively significant ones in the first-ever Lawrence Regional. LeBlanc finished the year batting .341 with a 1.131 OPS and 69 RBIs and received some form of All-American honors from six different outlets.

He technically has one year of eligibility remaining, but recently attended the MLB Draft Combine in Phoenix and now has a chance to become one of the highest-drafted Jayhawks ever.

Fitzgerald called him a “day-one guy”; the first day of the draft will feature the first four rounds along with compensatory rounds, competitive balance rounds and prospect promotion incentive rounds. The MLB’s own prospect ranking places LeBlanc at No. 130 overall and says in part, “He lacks a standout tool but his high-level performance makes him one of the better college shortstops available.”

“He doesn’t give up a single pitch,” Fitzgerald said. “Like, it’s one thing to not give away an at-bat. That guy doesn’t give up a single pitch during an at-bat.”

The MLB report notes that LeBlanc will get a chance at shortstop as a professional but may end up at second or third base. Fitzgerald said he can indeed play multiple positions and compared him to Los Angeles Angels shortstop Zach Neto and Chicago Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman.

“I think his ceiling is a long career as a big leaguer,” Fitzgerald said. “I think his floor is like a big-league utility guy.”

The draft runs July 11-12 in Philadelphia. Fellow Jayhawks Brady Ballinger and Dominic Voegele also attended the combine along with LeBlanc, and a handful of others could potentially hear their names called over the course of the 20 rounds.

It’ll cap off a distinguished season for the KU baseball program that included its first regular-season conference title since 1949, first Big 12 tournament title since 2006, first regional title since 1993 and first-ever home regional and super regional. Fitzgerald also won national coach of the year honors from Baseball America and Perfect Game upon concluding his fourth season at the helm of the program, and Jon Coyne was D1Baseball’s assistant coach of the year.

“We’ve got a lot of awesome pieces back, and a lot to be excited about,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s always hard to turn the page on a season. We’re always forced to because of the recruiting calendar. This one is harder in some ways because it was so much fun and (we) wanted to keep playing — easier in some ways because of all the great pieces we have coming back.”