College Baseball: 2025 Big Ten Conference Preview

2024 was a fairly decent year for Big Ten baseball. Illinois led the conference with an 18-6 record, with Nebraska not far behind and having the most wins in the conference. Ultimately, that led to three Big Ten teams being selected for the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship.

Nebraska was a No. 2 seed in the Stillwater Regional, Illinois was a No. 3 in the Lexington Regional, and Indiana was a No. 3 seed in the Knoxville Regional. Unfortunately, none made it out of the regional, though. 

The Big Ten will build on their presence in the college baseball playoffs, and the addition of Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington which may help them find more teams to make their way to the playoffs.

It’ll be interesting to see how many of these new West Coast teams and the original Big Ten teams handle the new travel schedule throughout the season. Let’s break down the Big Ten. Here’s what we will cover: 

• Teams Ranked in the Top 25
• 2024 Records   
• Preseason Award Winners
• Preseason All-Conference Team
• Projected Conference Champion
• Teams to Watch
• Top 2025 MLB Draft Prospects in the Big Ten
• Other 2025 MLB Draft Prospects to Watch in the Big Ten

Just Baseball Preseason Top 25 Teams

#12 – Oregon Ducks

#25 – Indiana Hoosiers

2024 Records

* Indicates new to conference. The record reflects their previous conference.

Projected Yearly Award Winners

Player of the Year: OF Devin Taylor – Indiana

Pitcher of the Year: LHP Joseph Dzierwa – Michigan State

Freshman of the Year: RHP Will Sanford – Oregon

Transfer of the Year: 1B Hollis Porter – Maryland

Preseason All-Conference Team

Projected Conference Champion

Oregon Ducks

Let’s first dive into the team we think will likely win the Big Ten Conference Championship.

The Ducks finished 40-20 in the PAC12 last year and entered their first year in the Big Ten. They ended up in a Super Regional last year and hosted one the year before. Head Coach Mark Wasikowski has brought them to four straight regional appearances since 2021. There is a lot to like with this team that’s loaded with talent. 

On the mound, the talent is headlined by Grayson Grinsell (7-2, 4.08 ERA, 14 GS). He will be their Friday night guy. The Reno, NV native had 79 K’s in 79.1 innings pitched last year. Having an experienced lefty anchor holding down the ship on Friday nights is always good.

Likely rounding out the rotation for the Ducks are two newcomers in transfer (St. Mary’s) Jason Reitz and true freshman Will Sanford. It’s consistently hard to know what you’ll get from new guys, but they’ve got plenty of stuff and upside to give you some confidence they’ll be able to adjust. It’s always just a question mark when you have guys with less experience in big conferences.

When you turn to the lineup, it’s loaded. It’s an older team with many juniors and seniors who will give this team tons of experience.

One of those seniors is first baseman Jacob Walsh, who slashed .254/.348/.548 with 13 doubles, 18 home runs, and 56 RBI. He’ll provide some real thump to this lineup. Sophomore shortstop Maddox Moloney will look to build on an incredible freshman year where he .322/.409/.573 with 10 home runs and 31 RBI.

The outfield is also well-rounded, with the likes of Anson Aroz, Mason Neville, and Jeffrey Heard. Neville should man center field and possessed the most pop out of all of them last year, hitting 16 home runs. He’s solid defensively, which is the case for most of this Oregon team. 

Teams to Watch

Indiana Hoosiers

While the Hoosiers finished 33-26, they had a very strong in-conference record, going 15-9 in the Big Ten. Their performance earned them a bid into a regional. They snuck into our Top 25 ranking at No. 25.

The Hoosiers’ strength comes in their lineup. They’ve got two top 50 Draft prospects for the 2025 MLB Draft in outfielder Devin Taylor and second baseman Jasen Oliver. Taylor slashed .347/.449/.660 with 20 home runs and 54 RBI. He was the first Indiana player to hit 20 home runs in a season since Alex Dickerson. He brings a ton of leadership traits to the clubhouse as well.

Oliver comes into his sophomore season after a successful freshman year where he slashed .285/.362/.529 with 8 doubles, 10 home runs, and 37 RBI. He’s just a steady producer in this lineup. They also brought in some strong freshmen in OF/C Hogan Deny and 1B Jake Hanley, who could make some noise. 

The Hoosiers have many more questions on the mound as they lost Ty Bothwell and Connor Foley. Foley was their top guy, drafted in the 5th round of the 2024 MLB Draft. They brought in a few transfers that could help stabilize their pitching staff, including two fifth-year seniors Gavin Seebold (Eastern Kentucky) and Cole Gilley (Indiana State).

A freshman class including, Brayton Thomas and Henry Brummel look strong too. Both Thomas and Brummel were considered decent draft prospects for the 2024 MLB Draft. The Milwaukee Brewers took Brummel in the 20th round of last year’s draft.

Overall, Indiana will need to find some consistency and stability in their rotation if they want to find some success, but they’ve got the overall firepower in the lineup to make a run this year. 

Nebraska Cornhuskers

The Cornhuskers were among the strongest teams in the conference last year, winning 40 games and finishing with the second-best record. They ultimately won the Big Ten Conference tournament as well, getting themselves to the Stillwater regional. While they didn’t make our top 25 poll, they did make it into D1Baseball’s top 25, coming in at No. 24.

The strength comes from their lineup, which like Oregon’s, is loaded with juniors and seniors.

Outfielder Gabe Swansen is a fringe top-draft prospect due to his age, but he finished last year slashing .327/.385/.654 with 16 extra-base hits and 22 RBI. Case Sanderson will look to build on an extremely impressive freshman season where he slashed .338/.469/.450, and the expectation is that he will tap into more power this year and slot in at first base.

Two transfers, catcher Hogan Helligso (Creighton) and outfielder Cael Frost (South Dakota State) are also poised to have a significant impact for the Huskers. 

Their rotation has a strong Friday night guy in junior right-hander Mason McConnaughey, who’s an intriguing name for the MLB Draft. He finished last year with a 9-3 record and 3.45 ERA in 17 games and features a low-90s fastball and low-80s slider. He brings a ton of experience to this rotation.

Tyler Horn is like the number two guy and saw his stuff tick up quite a bit this fall. He could help the Cornhuskers take this rotation to another level. They will likely round out their rotation with either two lefties in Jackson Brockett and Jalen Worthley. While they aren’t in our Top 25 just yet, there is a very strong chance they’ll be there fairly soon. 

Maryland Terrapins 

Living in Maryland and seeing this team the most, I may or may not be biased on the Terrapins, but Maryland looks like they will build and improve on Head Coach Matt Swope’s first year. They finished 34-22 and showed flashes of success last year, but struggled to maintain that during conference play.

As always, the strength of the Terrapins is their lineup which is headlined by the Hacopian brothers. Replacing captain former captain Kevin Keister is the older Hacopian brother, Eddie Hacopian, who slashed .380/.478/.579 last year with nine home runs, 17 doubles and 52 RBI. He is the definition of consistency.

His younger brother is Chris Hacopian, who has pushed himself into one of the top prospects for the 2026 MLB Draft after slashing .323/.431/.578 with 10 doubles, 15 home runs, and 42 RBI. He also walked more than he struck out. Both brothers are expected to man the middle infield with Chris at shortstop and Eddie at second base.

Maryland also added some huge transfers in Hollis Porter (JuCo), who is our pick to be Transfer of the Year, and Aden Hill (VCU).

The mound is where Maryland has struggled, but they have quite a few arms to help turn things around. The first is Kyle McCoy, returning after missing last year with Tommy John surgery. McCoy just missed the Just Baseball Top 80 2025 MLB Draft College prospects and showed his health this fall. His velo was back in the low 90s and he showed an excellent feel for his changeup and slider.

Sophomore Joey McMannis will also easily be in the rotation and has flashed some excellent stuff this fall. They also brought some big-name freshman pitchers to campus Jake Yeager and Cristofer Cespdes.

Yeager possesses the most upside, and some thought he might have a shot at getting taken in the draft. He sat 90-92 in this fall start but had a nice cutter, curveball, and changeup to round out his arsenal. He should have solid consistency against the heart of a strong Virginia lineup.

Maryland’s bats will carry them, and the amount of success they have in 2025 will depend on their pitching. 

Penn State Nittany Lions

Mike Gambino put together an over .500 record in his first season as Head Coach of the Nittany Lions.

Gambino, who came over from Boston College, has started to put Penn State on the map in the college baseball world. Despite their record, they snuck their way into the Big Ten Conference tournament and made a deep run before losing to Nebraska.

The lineup is where the Nittany Lions’ strength lies. They are led by third baseman and 2025 MLB Draft prospect Bryce Molinaro. He provides Penn State with a ton of experience and is coming off a season where he slashed .329/.409/.560 with 13 2B, 11 HR, and 45 RBI.

The Lions brought in a couple of solid transfers to help Molinaro, including St. Joseph’s transfer Ryan Weingartner and LSU transfer Paxton Kling.

Weingartner is an offensive force who is gaining a ton of traction for the 2025 MLB Draft after a strong Cape Cod performance. Kling was a highly touted prep prospect who went to LSU and didn’t see a ton of playing time. He did start for them as the season wore on and looks to build off that success at Penn State. He’s super athletic and plays plus defense.

Other guys like Matt Maloney and Cole Wagner will also be huge for this lineup. 

On the mound, the Nittany Lions have a ton of depth that plays to their advantage. While they don’t have a legit superstar on the bump, they’ve got plenty of arms that should be able to carry them through the season.

Ryan DeSanto is the big transfer from St. Joseph’s. He carried a 3.84 ERA in 25 starts there and also pitched in the Cape this summer where he found some success. Ben Shenosky, a transfer from Wake Forest, is likely in line for a potential rotation spot as well.

Logan Olsen is a name to watch as well. He was highly recruited out of high school and started his college career at Oregon before heading to Iowa Western last year. He dominated there and looks to be a force in the Big Ten.

The Nittany Lions have a few question marks as a team for sure, but it’s not hard to see why many think they could outperform last year’s team in Coach Gambino’s second year. 

Rutgers Scarlet Knights

The Northeast is often overlooked when it comes to baseball talent, and one of those teams that tends to produce year in and year out is Rutgers. While they struggled mightly in the conference last year, they did produce an over .500 record and saw a lot of guys head to the draft.

I caught Rutgers in a fall scrimmage against Georgetown, and the talent for the Scarlet Knights starts with the lineup. They’ll be led by outfielder Trevor Cohen and first baseman Ty Doucette, both of whom are prospects for the 2025 MLB Draft.

Cohen should be a table-setter at the top of the Rutgers lineup and produce some high contact rates. He can also make some noise on the base paths. Doucette finds barrel with ease and should provide some significant pop for Rutgers after finishing last year slashing .328/.388/.556 with 11 2B, nine HR, and 49 RBI.

The Scarlet Knights also snagged transfer outfielder Peyton Bonds (nephew of Barry Bonds) from Campbell. He’s likely to play center field for them and should be a force given some of his loud exit velos.

On the bump, the most impressive arm was Justin Shadek. He’s coming back from Tommy John this fall and showcased some very intriguing stuff. He sat mostly in the mid-90s with a curveball that had some serious bit and a slider with cutter-ish action to it. Him being healthy will be huge for the Scarlet Knights rotation.

Jack Kirchner is another arm coming back from injury that could play a role in this rotation. Transfer Preston Prince from Niagara has the best opportunity to round out the rotation despite the mediocre numbers. He’s a physical presence on the mound with some serious stuff, but the command is where he is looking to improve.

Rutgers has a few more transfers and returners like Jordan Falco, who will try to solidify the bullpen. I expect the Scarlet Knights to have a much better season in conference than they did last year. 

Top 2025 MLB Draft Prospects

Ranking is Based on Placement in our 2025 MLB Draft Top 80 College Prospects List

Other MLB Draft Prospects to Watch