The LSU baseball team will have a drastically different look this season, with three new starters striding the expansive Alex Box Stadium outfield.
The Tigers’ starting outfielders will include a converted catcher, a converted second baseman and last season’s full-time designated hitter.
Though the group might not have a lot of collegiate-level experience, they compiled some impressive numbers with their bats last season.
The new outfield will likely feature sophomore Jackson Slaid in left field, sophomore JaCoby Jones in center field and junior Raph Rhymes in right field.
Most notably, the Tigers will be without the services of “Mr. Everything” Mikie Mahtook, who accepted a last-minute deal to sign with the Tampa Bay Rays after they drafted him in the first round of last year’s MLB draft.
Mahtook batted .383 last season and launched 14 home runs — six fewer than the rest of the team combined.
While Mahtook was the lynchpin of LSU’s offensive success last season, LSU coach Paul Mainieri strove to find the positive side of his departure.
“The loss of Mikie is a tremendous loss. He’s one of the great players in the history of LSU baseball,” Mainieri said. “But at the same time, I think sometimes our team relied so much on Mikie to make the big play. … We always kind of felt, ‘Well, if you don’t come through, Mikie will.'”
Mahtook didn’t only bring a powerful bat. He was LSU’s most athletic outfielder last season — a role Mainieri hopes Jones can pick up this season.
With a 6-foot-3, 205-pound frame that resembles a young Mahtook, Jones fits the build. Mainieri saw the potential and asked Jones’ coach in the summer Cape Cod Baseball League to give him some innings in center field.
The results satisfied Mainieri’s curiosity.
“The coach called me back and said with the scouts he was talking to up in Cape Cod, many of them felt that Jones was the best center fielder in the Cape Cod League,” Mainieri said.
Jones is making a major transition for the second consecutive season. He earned Freshman All-American honors by hitting .338 last season after making the jump from his small Richton, Miss., high school.
Now Jones is getting used to playing a different position at the college level, though center field isn’t entirely new to him.
“It’s a big adjustment,” Jones said. “But I’ve been playing center field since I was a junior in high school. Coach Mainieri likes to move me around, but it’s a good thing.”
With Jones roaming center field, Rhymes and Slaid have the early edge on the corner outfield spots, though their positions are not set in stone.
Slaid earned the opportunity to play with an impressive summer and fall. While he may not wow anyone with his physical measurables or stats — he stands 5-foot-10 and has only six career at-bats — Mainieri said he thinks he can provide some pop to the LSU lineup this season.
At LSU’s Media Day, Mainieri pegged Slaid as an early candidate for the cleanup spot in the order.
“When you watch him, you’re not going to be impressed necessarily by his size or his athleticism,” Mainieri said. “But this kid just seems to put the barrel of the bat on the ball in a very consistent way. … We’re trying him in left field. That’s an experiment that’s a work in progress. We’re going to see how it plays out.”
With Rhymes, it’s less of an experiment than an assurance of health. The Monroe native had to undergo surgery in the offseason after batting .360 with 42 RBIs last season.
The injury miffed Mainieri.
“I don’t know how this happens — Raph Rhymes was our full-time DH last year, and at the end of the year he needed Tommy John surgery on his throwing arm,” Mainieri deadpanned. “I’m still trying to figure that one out.”
Rhymes has been limited to rolling the ball back to the infield when it comes his way in practice, but he’s confident he’ll be ready to go when LSU opens the season on Friday.
“Throwing, hitting, it feels great,” Rhymes said of his arm. “I haven’t had any setbacks or anything. I’m just working to rehab it every day.”
In reserve, LSU will have junior college transfer Arby Fields, junior Alex Edward and freshman Chris Sciambra.
 
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Contact Luke Johnson at [email protected].