LSU baseball remains busy in the transfer portal as it looks to rebuild its roster for 2027. Head coach Jay Johnson and staff had a productive week on the recruiting trail, picking up three transfers to add to Wednesday’s commitment of top transfer Bino Watters. On the other side of the coin, no Tigers on the 2026 roster departed, but the team lost a junior college transfer’s commitment.
LSU gets Tulane outfielder Jason Wachs
News broke of the former Tulane outfielder moving an hour west on Sunday. Jason Wachs will enter LSU as a junior who has demonstrated plenty of growth in his first two seasons.
Wachs built on a strong freshman year with his 2026 campaign. He generated the same amount of hits as his freshman year, but OPSed 1.027 — a dramatic bump from his .936 freshman mark. With the uptick in that critical run-creating metric, it’s no surprise that he doubled his freshman RBI total in 2026, finishing the year with 54.
Reservations about Wachs’ exact role on LSU’s 2027 roster will have to be held until the fall at the earliest. He enters the program just days after the Tigers landed Watters, the top portal target and fellow outfielder, and weeks after initial rumors began to swirl about the potential return of outfield keystone Derek Curiel.
In any event, Wachs’ addition is vital for continuing the restock of what started out as a paltry-looking 2027 outfield corps at the offseason’s start.
Cade Kurland transfers from Florida, pulls name out of draft
The former Florida middle infielder, Cade Kurland, is a name that might ring a bell for LSU fans. As a freshman in 2023, he played in all but three games in the Gators’ run to the College World Series final where Florida was ultimately defeated by LSU.
In that season, he took home Freshman All-American honors from numerous outlets and drove in 50 runs. He took a slight step back in his sophomore year and has been held back by injuries since. His third season resulted in a medical redshirt, and his 2026 campaign was limited to 49 games as he dealt with an oblique injury.
Still, Kurland’s numbers remained strong throughout the difficulties. The talent is absolutely there, so the biggest question will be if his health allows him to piece together those numbers over the full course of LSU’s season. Injury luck, or a lack thereof, played a critical part in LSU’s 2026 underperformance.
JUCO Pitcher Hayden Morris re-enters portal
Hayden Morris committed to LSU while at junior college side Blinn College in the fall of 2025, and he was set to join the Tigers in time for the 2027 season. At the time, he was coming off of a brilliant freshman year where he pitched at an ERA clip of 4.17 over 86.1 innings, striking out 106 batters in the process.
That success did not carry into the right-handed pitcher’s sophomore year. He took a step back in most statistics, both cumulative and rate, and carried an eyewatering ERA of 6.59. Morris made the announcement on Tuesday that he was re-entering the transfer portal and rescinding his commitment from LSU over social media.
Even though the results in his second season were far from grand, pitching depth remains a question for the Tigers in 2027. LSU now has only one JUCO commit set to be a Tiger next spring: Walters State right-hander Major Osbolt.
Diego Velazquez joins LSU
The former USC product was announced as committed by Johnson on Tuesday night. Diego Velazquez transfers out after only spending his freshman season in Southern California.
Velazquez made the Freshman All-Big Ten team after throwing 31.2innings for USC with an ERA of 4.26. Most promisingly, he limited issues with control in that time, a major concern with the pitching style of LSU in 2026.
The right-handed pitcher also made appearances as a position player, but will likely be limited to just the mound in Baton Rouge.
Velazquez certainly quells any hurt that may come about from the Morris de-commitment, filling the hole with a player who came out of high school as a top-100 prospect and has delivered so far.
