3 Days 'til Aggie Baseball: Werner adds 'graduate' to growing resume
It’s that time of year! The Texas Aggie baseball team is set to open up the 2023 season on Friday against Seattle at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. We’re counting down the days with our 2023 Aggie Baseball Preview Series.
Believe it or not, Trevor Werner is just a junior eligibility-wise.
Believe it or not, he’s also already a graduate of Texas A&M University.
That’s right. The ultra-talented third baseman earned a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology last December and is currently pursuing his master’s in sport management.
“Once I got my ring, that was surreal in itself, but actually graduating was awesome,” Werner said. “It was like, ‘Alright, I’m living my dream playing Aggie baseball. I’ve got my degree. I feel like I’m all set.’ Honestly, a big part of me coming back this year was being able to get my degree and graduate.”
And just like his collegiate baseball career, even graduation day was slightly abnormal... but in a good way.
“I was actually in the Dominican Republic the day of my graduation,” Werner said. “I went on an Aggies for the Nations mission trip. We left the day before I was supposed to walk for graduation. At first, my mom was like, ‘No, I want you to walk. I want you to go through the ceremony.’
“One of my big things in life, in general, is that I don’t want to have regrets when I’m older. I told myself I wanted to do this. Graduation is great, I’ll get the paper in the mail, but I wanted to go serve in the Dominican Republic.”
As for his time as a college baseball player, that has been much more of a roller coaster.
Entering his fourth year at A&M, Werner has yet to play a full season despite possessing talent in spades.
“I nicknamed him my first week here ‘SEC POY’ — SEC Player of the Year,” Jim Schlossnagle said. “I want him thinking in that mindset. I think he’s capable of being that player. He’s the most tooled-out player that I’ve ever coached in college baseball.”
An Opening Day starter at shortstop in 2020, he split time on the infield and as a hard-throwing reliever.
“My dream school was A&M, and to play at A&M,” Werner said. “People would ask me, ‘Has it hit you yet that you’re playing at A&M?’ I don’t think it hit me until I ran out for the national anthem on Opening Night. That was super cool.”
However, a global pandemic interrupted his true freshman season that saw him hit .277 in 13 starts.
In A&M’s lackluster 2021 season, Werner finished with just 33 at-bats in nine games and another nine appearances out of the bullpen. He completed his “COVID sophomore” campaign with a .182 average and a 7.71 ERA.
“Not being in the lineup consistently can be tough,” Werner said. “I definitely struggled mentally with that.
“That was for sure tough because I came to A&M to play and play every day.”
In the summer of 2021, he found the playing time he needed with the Walnut Creek Crawdads of the California Collegiate League.
“I went out with a good attitude and played in the CCL that summer and did well out there,” Werner said. “I learned to love baseball again after that tough season.”
That same summer, Schlossnagle took over in College Station, re-energizing the program and Werner as an individual.
Under Schlossnagle, Werner has focused on being a position player.
“Schloss kind of pulled me over and was like, ‘Hey, what do you think of just playing third base this year? Obviously, you’re going to play a big role on this team, playing third for us, and I think if you just focused on being a position guy for once in your career, it could really help you,’” Werner said. “I was like, ‘I guess it’s worth a shot.’ I trust what he was saying and him as a coach, and I feel like he knows best.
“I don’t regret that decision at all.”
Werner began 2022 on a tear, going 6-for-12 with three doubles and a homer in a season-opening sweep of Fordham.
Then adversity struck again.
An oblique injury forced Werner to miss the following weekend vs. Penn, a series the Aggies dropped. Then, in his second at-bat against Washington State in the Frisco Classic, Werner took a swing and felt a pop.
“I had the thought of the hamate in the back of my mind because I knew it was a baseball injury in the hand, and I was like, ‘Shoot, that’s not good,’” Werner said. “I got back in the box and swung again. My hand came off the bat and did a one-handed swing. I was walking around in the box, and Schloss knew something was up.
“I remember sitting there for like two innings with a blank stare, just looking at the ground like, ‘Why?’ I had just gotten back, and that wasn’t how the season was supposed to go.”
Surgery to repair a broken left hamate caused Werner to miss 23 games. He was back in the lineup vs. Arkansas, helping the Aggies down the stretch en route to the SEC West division crown.
“He handled last year great,” Schlossnagle said. “He was never really himself except for the first weekend of the season... He certainly deserves to have success and deserves to have a healthy season. I’m just trying to keep him in bubble wrap until we get to (Opening Day).”
A freeing conversation with Schlossnagle during A&M’s series at Vanderbilt allowed him to regain his confidence.
“I had the freedom to fail,” Werner said. “Go out there and give my team and my teammates my all with what I had, whether that was 60 percent, 80 percent or 100 percent. Go out there every day and do what I can do to the best of my ability and know that whether I was successful or not that, coach Schloss trusted in me.”
While his 2022 stat line isn’t all that memorable, Werner authored an at-bat in Omaha that will long live in Aggie lore.
With A&M facing elimination against Texas and tied 2-2 in the bottom of the second inning, Werner and Lucas Gordon found themselves in a seemingly never-ending battle as the Aggie fouled pitch after pitch off.
Then, on the 11th pitch (including seven foul balls), Werner lined a two-run single to left.
“It may be the best at-bat I’ve seen here at the College World Series,” ESPN color commentator Ben McDonald remarked.
A&M never looked back, cruising to a 10-2 victory over its archrival.
“In the game, I remember it being, ‘This is Texas. This is our little brother. We have to take business today,’” Werner said. “I just remember my heart like racing once I got the hit. ... That was pretty surreal.
Focusing on 2023, the graduate is healthy and is ready to turn dreams — and a nickname — into reality.
“I have a lot of goals and expectations for this season, but (SEC Player of the Year) would be one of the big ones, along with winning a national championship,” Werner said. “The guys that were in Omaha last year, we still remember the feeling of losing that last game. … I don’t want to feel that after this season. I want to be holding a trophy up with my brothers in Omaha.”
