Some things remain the same with Vanderbilt baseball under Tim Corbin. The Commodores made their 18th-straight NCAA tournament in 2024, the longest current streak in the country.
But some things have not remained the same recently for a program that debatably fielded the best team in college baseball history with the 2019 squad that won everything, followed up with a 2021 season that ended one win short of another national title, and never got find out with a loaded team in the Covid-canceled season of 2020.
Then in 2022, Vanderbilt had its first losing season in SEC play (14-16) since a 12-17 mark in 2008, then, it happened again with last year’s 13-17 mark. The Commodores failed to get out of a regional for the third-straight year in 2024, the first time that’s happened since 2007-09.
And thus Corbin made some difficult changes. Gone is hitting coach Mike Baxter, a starting outfielder on Corbin’s first NCAA tournament team at Vanderbilt (2004), who served in that role for seven years. Gone is assistant coach Tyler Shewmaker after three years. In their place are hitting coach Jayson King (the head coach at Dayton last season) and Ty Blankmeyer, who’ll serve as recruiting coordinator at Duke.
That’s left the team wanting for more entering 2025.
“I think ‘hungry,’”Corbin said, when asked how he’d describe his team. “I think when you’re in a program like this, and you have opportunities in the past that they’ve seen from afar, whether it’s postseason, the opportunity to go to Vanderbilt, the opportunity to go to Omaha, and win in Omaha, there’s certainly a sense of, okay, we want to be the people that take this next step with this team, that we haven’t done in the last couple of years.”
Corbin, who’d been more reluctant to use the transfer portal that most SEC coaches, also added a couple of key pieces in James Madison second baseman Mike Mancini and Georgetown right-hander Cody Bowker.
Will it be enough to flip the script to return to the Commodores’ glory days? History suggest so: Vanderbilt followed its previous three-year super regional drought with a 16-12 league mark in 2010 and a super regional appearance, with an SEC regular-season title and a College World Series appearance to follow in 2011. But on the other hand, as great as the league was then, it may have lacked both the top-end dominance the league has now as well as the league-wide buy-in on baseball that the SEC has now.
One thing is certain: with eight of the Commodores’ 10 SEC series coming against teams ranked in at least one major preseason poll, whatever success the Commodores have will have been earned.
THE LINEUP
Vanderbilt’s power has lacked in recent years, one thing that led to the change in hitting coaches. The Commodores still fall short in as compared to the league’s upper half there, but hopes for improvement fall on the shoulders of three important players.
The first is 6-foot-4, 257-pound Braden Holcomb, who’s built like an NFL tight end. He’s not close to consistently tapping into his raw power but did belt five home runs in 119 plate appearances last year. He’ll probably man right field, but could also wind up at first or third.
Vanderbilt’s most important recruit was the right-handed-hitting Brodie Johnston, who turned a good summer into a great fall. Johnston and Holcomb looked like the team’s biggest power threats in the fall and both should be middle-of-the-order bats, with Johnson probably slotting at third.
First baseman Chris Maldonado finished second on the team in batting average (.307) and slugging (.543) while ranking third in on-base percentage (.404) as a freshman two years ago. Maldonado suffered a season-ending shoulder injury that required surgery but should be healthy and ready to provide some of the power the Commodores need.
“But the Chris Maldonado I remember last year is not the Chris Maldonado this year,” Corbin said. “It’s a much stronger version, it’s a more-knowing version, and Chris was pretty knowing as a freshman. He’d give you good at-bats. He knew the strike zone. He wasn’t jumpy mentally. I thought he had good presence about him.”
Mancini, a James Madison transfer who mashed four of his 15 home runs over two games in one day of last year’s Raleigh regional, should start at second. However, a preseason injury could cost in the season’s first month.
That leaves Jayden Davis, the Southern Conference freshman of they year in 2023, when he hit .358/.452/.541 with nine home runs, as the likely opening-day starter. Davis lost several weeks after he was hit in the face with a pitch on April 27, breaking orbital bones and resulting in surgery.
The loser of that battle will likely be the opening-day DH.
Vanderbilt got big news when three-year shortstop starter Jonathan Vastine, a career .283/.357/.468 hitter and a stellar fielder, chose to return to school. He’ll need to improve his hitting against breaking pitches but could be one of the league’s best all-around players.
“I look at how much growth has taken place mentally. … the thing he does every day is he’s on the field and he’s just throwing himself around like it’s a game and he has no regard for his body,” Corbin said. “And maybe I should be the one that puts the brake on sometimes because you certainly want to preserve him for the games. But at the same time he’s showing others how you have to train at a certain level in order to get consistency, and he certainly does that.”
So could RJ Austin, a smart, aggressive utility man who’ll probably land in center. MLB Pipeline’s No. 79 prospect for the 2025 MLB Draft could rank among the SEC’s leaders in batting average and steals.
“I would say that the game as a whole, probably slowing himself down,” Corbin says, when asked about Austin’s off-season progression. “That’s probably the best thing I can say about him. I think, you know, when he was here—you’ve heard me compare him to like a ‘70s player because he plays at one speed—he doesn’t play slow but he can put the brakes on his mind and put himself in a good spot before he hits.”
Vanderbilt trusted Colin Barci, MLB Pipeline’s 213th-rated player for the ’23 draft, to hit in the middle of the order as a DH late last year even if the production didn’t justify that. This year, he’ll catch, where he’s been untested at the collegiate level though the ability to do so seems to be present.
Freshman Rustan Rigdon, a top-100 high school prospect who had a good fall, may emerge from the field of options to win the left-field job.
“He gets in the batter’s box and he’s locked in,” Corbin says. “He’s—there’s an awareness, there’s skill, there’s presence, he’d not blown away by anything. You can see him. He’s a calm kid and he’s a little bit laid-back too, but there’s a different rhythm to him when he’s in the batter’s box. … He’s bright-eyed, he’s very confident about what he can do.”
Talented senior JD Rogers, who had a stellar summer in the Cape Cod league, or RJ Hamilton, a highly-regarded high school recruit who didn’t play last year due to injury, could also factor in the outfield. Hamilton stole 42 bases in the Northwoods League last summer.
Vanderbilt’s need for power could also give talented first-year JUCO transfer Riley Nelson, who hit 13 homers in a JUCO league that uses wooden bats for conference games, a shot at regular playing time.
Utility man David Mendez, who followed King from Dayton, could see time in several spots.
Vanderbilt has speed on the bench in returnee Jacob Humphrey, who swiped 78 bases in two years at UMass-Lowell before transferring before last season, and
THE PITCHING
For years, Vanderbilt has had a first-round-type ace at the top of its rotation. The Commodores have slipped there a bit in recent years, but even so, Bryce Cunningham went 53rd to the Yankees last year, and Carter Holton, 62nd to the Braves.
One of the biggest questions this year will be whether Friday night guy JD Thompson (65th in MLB Pipeline’s draft rankings for 2025) or Ethan McElvain (a top-50 recruit out of high school in 2023) ascend to the level of past Commodore aces.
Thompson doesn’t have the work volume (74 career collegiate innings) or the results (4.62 ERA) of Vanderbilt’s Friday-night guys before him. Thompson did, however, go six innings in four starts last year, including two after being ejected (and subsequently suspended) for applying foreign substances to a baseball during an April 20 start vs. Florida. His fastball generally tops out in the low-90s but he’s got good control and the ability to throw multiple pitches for strikes.
McElvain is probably the most gifted arm on the staff, a 6-foot-4, 241-pound lefty who pairs a great slider and a fastball that can run into the high-90s. McElvain hurt his back warming up to replace Thompson in the Florida game and pitched just once more after that, so having him healthy for a full season should be a huge boost.
“Good left-handed abilities,” Corbin said, when asked about McElvain. “He’s a kid that has a pretty good arm. Better than a pretty-good arm. I said this about Miller but I’ll say this about him too: More ability to handle his pitches. He’s breathing better. There’s a better presence on the mound.
“Last year—he’s a bulldog. But containing bulldog ability is important for a young kid. He’s been able to do that so far. He’s pitched well for us. So, I look forward to him being healthy. And he’s done a good job with his body, too.”
In between the two will likely be Bowker, a right-hander with a 2.80 across 90 career innings who followed that up with a terrific showing in the Cape Cod League.
Freshman right-hander Hudson Barton will probably get the first crack at mid-week starts. A local recruit from tiny Grace Christian Academy, Barton had Tommy John surgery in 2022 and didn’t pitch much in high school, but popped up as a legitimate high-round draft prospect last year after showing elite stuff as a senior. He has drawn some comparisons to former Commodore ace and MLB starter Kyle Wright.
Sophomore right-handers Alex Kranzler and Brennan Seiber, as well as sophomore lefty Miller Green, will account for a large chunk of innings somewhere. All three played for Team USA last year.
Green, a lefty who could be a dominant end-game arm, stood out in the offseason.
“He’s very hungry. … If (pitching coach Scott Brown) wasn’t around, he’d operate pretty well,” Corbin says. “He’s a director. He directs himself. He understands what he wants to do. Because of that his pitches are crisper. There’s more life on the ball.”
Seiber probably has the best command of the three and also a knack for keeping the ball on the ground, while Green’s breaking ball is one of the best pitches on the staff.
Another Nashville-area freshman, lefty Mathew Shorey, saw significant time in fall scrimmages and could see mid-week starts or key bullpen time.
Sawyer Hawks pitched sparingly for the Commodores last year after an early-season injury. Hawks was stellar as a sophomore at Air Force in 2023, posting a 2.84 ERA with 70 strikeouts and 27 walks in 50 2/3 innings and eight saves. Had Hawks been healthy last year, he’d likely have closed and could be in that role this season.
Lefty Ryan Ginther has pitched 71 1/2 innings with a 4.92 ERA at Vanderbilt, and figures to see high-leverage weekend innings.
Luke Guth and Coastal Carolina transfer Levi Huesman will pitch their second years at Vanderbilt. Both have great stuff but consistent strike-throwing is an issue. Huesman was a 17th-round pick of the Rays in 2022.
Dayton transfer Connor Fennell threw more collegiate innings last year (74) than anyone on the staff. He’s a fly-ball pitcher with a low walk rate.
Righty Tommy O’Rourke, a graduate student, last pitched at Stanford in 2022. He was a big part of the Cardinal bullpen in 2021 and ’22, throwing 57 innings with 60 strikeouts and a 5.05 ERA.
England Bryan, another hard-throwing freshman righty who hails from the Nashville area, could also see innings.
POTENTIAL STRENGTHS
The Commodores always defend well, and with the athletic Vastine and Austin covering a lot of ground up the middle, should again. And while it may not compete with Corbin’s elite staffs, Vanderbilt has enough good-to-great arms that it should pitch well. There’s a ton of speed on the roster, so the Commodores could be a real headache for teams with defensive deficiencies. Having one of the best college baseball coaches of all time in the dugout doesn’t hurt, either.
POTENTIAL CONCERNS
The Commodores’ elite teams have usually had multiple all-Americans on the roster; this one may not. And while Vanderbilt may improve in the power department, it isn’t likely to go blow-for-blow with the league’s better home-run-hitting teams. Player for player, the roster doesn’t rank with the league’s top third in terms of proven accomplishments.
FINAL ANALYSIS
Vanderbilt will be in the unfamiliar position of being picked middle-of-the-pack in a loaded SEC. That could be what the Commodores, who as recently as two or three years ago were considered the top program in college baseball, need. Much will depend on whether King is an improvement over Baxter, especially as it comes to developing power, and whether a bunch of talented sophomore arms can take a step up make the Commodore staff—which had fits against the league’s top lineups last season—elite again.