Mid-June off-season update

Looking at all the moving pieces as Coach Mercer and staff work towards a turn around in 2026

By Carl James @jovian34 June 14th, 2025

The off-season began for the Indiana University Baseball program in May after the Hoosiers were eliminated from the Big Ten (B1G) Tournament and did not have a good enough RPI or resume to be seriously considered for an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. That was Indiana’s first post-season miss in the past three years. The mission this off-season is to make that miss only a one-year hiccup.

The recent House Settlement was approved by United Stated Judge Claudia Wilken on June 7th have changed the rules. All Power-4 programs are part of the settlement. Per D1Baseball.com’s Kendall Rogers (subscription required), this means that the 2026 Spring roster will be capped at 34 players plus what I interpret to be up to 6 additional “grandfathered” walk-ons who would have gotten roster spots if it were not for the settlement. This likely means Indiana can likely carry 40 into next year’s spring roster like they have the past few years. The spring roster must be finalized by December 1st. In the past this did not need to happen until play began in mid-February.

Several players already are or will be leaving due to exhausting eligibility, going professional after the MLB Draft, or transferring to other programs. New players will enter either as incoming freshman or via the transfer portal. Last summer we at iubase.com launched a player tracking web application that attempts to track all of the publicly known transactions and generate a projection of what the fall player list will look like. At the time of writing this article, that projection stands at 43 players.

Positional Roster Movement

Indiana will have a lot to replace in the way of key players. I will break it down by position.

This is all based on publicly available information. This our best analysis based on what we know today.

Outfield

The most obvious loss will be arguably the best player to ever wear the Cream & Crimson in left fielder Devin Taylor. Indiana’s career home-run king, Taylor is attending the MLB Draft Combine this coming week and will very likely be drafted on the first day, if not within the first round. Redshirt sophomore centerfielder Korbyn Dickerson is also likely to get drafted on day one and is also attending the combine in the coming week. Right field to conclude the season was held down by sophomore Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins put his name into the transfer portal this past week. This means the entire starting outfield will need to be replaced.

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That being said, freshmen Hogan Denny and Caleb Koskie both were successful in starting roles during the season, especially the several weeks that Wiggins was reportedly out with a foot injury during conference play. Denny started a lot of games as designated hitter. Koskie is also a left-handed pitcher, and Denny is also a catcher. Centerfield is likely to be manned by the one position player transfer portal commit so far, Ayden Crouse. Crouse hit .391 as a junior college sophomore All-American honorable mention. He can cover a ton of ground in center and wreak havoc on the basepaths.

The Hoosiers also returning rising sophomore Cole Decker who pinch ran a lot in 2025 and head coach Jeff Mercer had described as someone likely to be a key player in his career. The fact that he was limited in plate appearances means they likely did not think the bat was D1 college ready, but given a full off-season that may change.

Two incoming freshmen are listed as outfielders in Noah Drake and Cal Gates, both are Indiana products. A wild card is returner is Ryan Gilbert who has the talent to be a star and has spent years battling back from serious illness. Gilbert did manage a pinch-hit home run in 2025. It is possible another year may allow Gilbert to grow back into a regular contributor.

Infield

In a weird dichotomy, the Hoosiers are losing the entire returning 2024 starting infield* (who all were on the 2025 roster) but will in fact return three of the four players who actually saw the most time in those positions. In addition, those three players compromised a majority of the B1G’s All-freshman infield in B1G Freshman of the Year first baseman Jake Hanley, shortstop Cooper Malamazian, and Will Moore who can play either second or third base.

*Joey Brenczewski started at first when Brock Tibbitts was catching or injured which was a lot of 2024

The one consistent 2025 starter in the infield the Hoosiers are losing is junior second baseman Tyler Cerny who is transferring to Kentucky if he does not sign to go pro. He is predicted to go on the final day of the MLB Draft. Cerny got off to a very slow start with the bat in 2025 but ended the season swinging it really well. He lost his defensive post at shortstop to Malamazian halfway through the season as the errors continued to pile up and switched to second base. He made several spectacular plays in the infield but was very prone to making mistakes on routine plays.

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Four incoming freshmen are listed as infielders. This includes two first baseman, Elijah Bennett and Davian Carrera to back up Hanley as Joey Brenczweski is transferring to Big 12 newcomer South Florida. There is also the possibility that Hanley will be a two-way player in 2026 and may see some time on the mound, which may give opportunities for either Bennett or Carrera at first base.

Third baseman graduate Josh Pyne is transferring to Sun Belt powerhouse Troy. Pyne missed most of 2025 with multiple injuries. He is expected to be a key player for the Trojans. Second baseman Jasen Oliver started 2025 as a draft-eligible sophomore prospect but struggled to say the least hitting and was replaced after over 80 at-bats. He did get a couple of starts in May and hit well to end the season. The Michigan product could be a big factor wherever he ends up.

Catcher

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The catching transition looks to be the smoothest of all of the positions. Senior Jake Stadler and Sophomore TJ Schuyler pretty evenly split catching duties this past season. With Stadler graduated, Schuyler looks to take on the primary role. Freshman Brayden Ricketts, who handled the bullpen this season, is returning along with Pat Costin who was not on the spring roster. Three incoming freshmen, Logan Cotton, Owen ten Oever, and Miles Mador will add to depth behind the plate. Given the shake up in the outfield, if a couple of these guys pan out, I’m not sure how much time Hogan Denny will see behind the plate. He may be exclusively an outfielder in 2026, but he can catch, so it is worth mentioning.

Pitching

I’m not breaking out the pitching into left/right, long/short, or starter/reliever as the roles during pitching coach Dustin Glant’s tenure have mostly been pretty fluid. Almost any pitcher with success is looked upon to cover multiple innings, no matter which inning they enter the game in. While they have said that they would like to have more well-defined roles, it would be a huge step forward to just get all of the innings in a week covered with solid pitching starting in February. The past two seasons the pitching hasn’t really solidified until April, and this spring made clear that is just too late in order to build a viable at-large resume.

The Indiana pitching staff managed a 0.60 ERA improvement 2025 over 2024 despite the undefined roles and early season problems. Unfortunately, most of those innings will not be back. Second team All B1G righty Cole Gilley, righty flame thrower Ben Grable, and lefty Ryan Kraft are all out of eligibility. While he struggled mightily with the home run ball at times, righty Gavin Seebold logged a lot of innings and is also out of eligibility.

Rising senior Aydan Decker-Petty was a non-factor to start the season but made a lot of progress over the season and was key arm in May. Decker-Petty has entered the transfer portal. Derron Swanson made a big splash in March as a starting option against Indiana State, but the strike-thrower’s stuff proved too hittable for Power-4 level competition and he has transferred to Toldeo. Two rising juniors, Seth Benes and Ryan Rushing, were very inconsistent in the brief opportunities they got in 2025, and both have entered the transfer portal. Michael Lorenzetti and Will Eldridge were non-factors in 2025 and have also elected to transfer.

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If Hoosier pitching is to take the step forward it needs to take to be a regional team, it will have to be among the youth in the program. This has been where pitching in the Dustin Glant era has been disappointing. While Glant has done a good job developing Connor Foley and Jacob Vogel into quality arms at Indiana, guys like Brayden Risedorph, Decker-Petty, Benes, and Rushing have struggled, despite clearly having the talent. Cooper Katskee and Luke Hayden struggled at Indiana, transferred to mid-majors, and were very successful. Katskee is back in the B1G and will likely be a weekend rotation piece for Nebraska next spring.

Vogel will join a group of veterans that will provide a foundation for covering those needed innings. This includes righties Pete Haas and Jackson Yarberry, plus lefty Anthony Gubitosi along with lefty Grant Holderfield if he decides to return to use the extra year of eligibility he was given as he took a medical redshirt in 2023. There are a few other guys who were with the program in 2025 (not necessarily on the spring roster) who did not log many innings but may compete for a role this fall.

The portal is providing for an opportunity to shore up the veteran group. Glant has had huge success in taking established college pitchers and tweaking their pitch assortment so that they outperform their prior stats even as they face the better competition that playing for Indiana demands. Jack Perkins, Bradley Brehmer, Luke Sinnard, Ty Bothwell, and Cole Gilley. I include Bothwell since his first three years were under Justin Parker at Indiana.

The initial group of pitching transfers is a group of four right-handers. Michael Sarhatt is a real veteran, entering his sixth year of college coming off having pitched in the NCAA Division II National Championship series for Point Loma. Kaden Jacobi brings SEC experience having pitched for the struggling Mizzou program. Jackson Bergman will be taking a step up from Toledo (a de facto trade for Swanson). Ian White, Jr. was effectively wild in 10.0 innings for mid-major powerhouse East Carolina, averaging more than a strikeout per inning.

Coach Mercer has stressed the importance of patience with young pitching, but other programs have shown an ability to develop freshman arms. Rutgers, for example, has excelled at this, although they are losing most of those guys to the transfer portal this summer.

For Indiana their rising sophomore group of talented arms will need to take a big leap this fall. Lefty Brayton Thomas appears the closest to breaking out among this group. Righty Henry Brummel may have the most raw talent. Trey Telfer and Caleb Koskie can become important pieces as well, though Koskie will also be competing for time in the outfield. As the “grandfathering” will eventually come to an end, Indiana would like to have one or two true two-way guys to make the most of a 34-man roster. There is real potential for Hanley and Koskie to step into those roles in 2026.

Along with the sophomores, Indiana needs to get one or two freshmen to be serious contributors in the spring. The pitching recruiting is arguably the best that Mercer and Glant have brought in, but there is also significant risk of it getting poached in the MLB Draft. Right hander Matthew Fisher is unlikely to make it to campus as he is a predicted first day draft pick. Lefty Alex Barr is also attending the MLB Draft Combine with Fisher next week. While Combine attendance is not a guarantee of getting drafted (Hanley attended last year without getting drafted), it is a pretty good proxy of what the MLB programs value, and we use it to determine who to exclude from our projections. Barr and Fisher are therefore not in the 43 names we have in our prediction list. We do have several other freshman arms including highly touted righty Blane Metz out of Floyd Central and Xavier Carrera from Boone Grove. We will be watching the draft very closely next month.

Scholarship situation following the House Settlement

The scholarship situation remains a potential concern. Any player on the 34-man portion of the roster can be given a full scholarship according to the new rules. Schools are therefore able to offer 34 full scholarships if they so choose. Kendall Rogers reported that a “majority” of SEC, ACC, and Big 12 programs would pay at least 25 scholarships starting immediately, while the B1G programs he spoke with are not going much over the old limit of 11.7 scholarships when all added up. For example, if three players all get half scholarships that would be 1.5 scholarships. Hypothetically, if a team capped themselves at 12 scholarships, you might expect 24 players to be averaging half scholarships, though some players may be getting more, some less.

The bulk of the B1G is still hampered by the fact that among the power leagues, the B1G has by far the highest percentage of cold weather locations. Baseball is an outdoor summer sport that all college levels start in the middle of winter. Most SEC, ACC, and Big 12 programs can start playing home games when the season opens, while some B1G teams can’t play at home until the conference season opens. Illinois even refused to do that in 2025, hosting Michigan in Vero Beach, Florida in week 4 (early March).

While playing baseball in cold (not freezing) weather is not a huge problem for the players, fans do not attend cold weather games in large numbers. The extends to the even the SEC. In 2023 I attended a March midweek at Kentucky and there were no more than 200 fans in the stands with temps in 30s. In June, with Kentucky hosting regionals, they packed the place with 7,000+ fans. Weather matters and it’s understandable why administrations don’t want to “invest” in baseball, when they are lucky to get three series each year played at home in weather that will attract big attendance to drive revenue.

There is a very big possibility that the prospect of larger scholarships may have enticed more players to go to other Power-4 programs or significant mid-major programs in the South that can play 40+ home games a year mostly in nice weather.

We will keep you posted as the picture becomes clearer