LSU baseball commit and top high school prospect Logan Schmidt will decline his professional offer and will advance to play collegiate baseball in 2027. The left-handed pitcher announced his decision on Sunday over social media, one day ahead of the deadline for players taken in the MLB Draft to come to a deal with their professional organizations.
Schmidt was drafted 59th overall in the MLB Draft earlier this month by the Cleveland Guardians. He is ranked as the seventh best player in this year’s high school class by Baseball America.
“After a great deal of thought and conversations with my agent Garrett Parcell, others at the Paragon group, my family, and those I trust most, I have made the difficult decision not to sign with the Cleveland Guardians,” Schmidt wrote in the caption of an Instagram post announcing the decision. “I am excited for what is next!”
Though Schmidt’s decision clears the LSU commit’s path to play collegiate baseball, the route he takes is not certain and could see him decommit from the program. Schmidt turned 18 on Thursday, meaning he won’t be draft eligible until 2029 if he honors his commitment and heads to Baton Rouge.
Reports say that Schmidt’s desired signing bonus was $5 million, a number that far exceeds the $1.6 million slot value that comes with his pick in the draft. This year, the first 16 picks in the draft were assigned slot values of Schmidt’s asking price or higher.
As a second-round pick out of high school, it is not entirely unreasonable for Schmidt to make a leap into the first round of mock drafts with one solid year at the next level. As such, an expedited return to the MLB Draft could flatter him. He would be eligible for the 2027 draft if he heads to a junior college instead of LSU, throwing a wrench into the plan for the Tigers.
The biggest thing going for LSU in Schmidt’s decision-making process will be its unmatched representation at the top of MLB Drafts over the last half decade.
The selection of Derek Curiel by the Pittsburgh Pirates at fifth overall in this year’s draft gave LSU its fourth player to go in the first five picks of the last four drafts. Curiel was also the fifth top-six pick out of LSU in the last five years.
If Schmidt comes to LSU and is able to develop in the way pitchers like Paul Skenes or fellow lefty Kade Anderson did, there’s nothing holding back Schmidt from being taken in the single digits of the 2029 draft.
The timeline for Schmidt’s college decision is up in the air. The hard deadline will be at the start of the academic year, so an answer is no more than a month away, but it could come much sooner than that if his mind is made up.
