4 Days 'til: Second-year arms hold the key to A&M truly being elite

It’s that time of year! The Texas Aggie baseball team is set to open up the 2025 season on Friday against Elon at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park. We’re counting down the days with our 2025 Aggie Baseball Preview Series.

Outs are the most important element of baseball.

They're finite. They're the game clock. The contest doesn't end until you collect 27 of them. You can't take a knee or go to a four-corner offense to waste time. You have to get them.

In other words, outs matter...a lot.

As everyone attempts to poke holes and ask questions about the nation’s preseason No. 1 team, a common inquiry by fans and media alike is something to the effect of, "Well, they lost Evan Aschenbeck and Chris Cortez. Who's going to replace them?"

It's a question that, if we are being candid, has to be asked — not because I believe Jason Kelly's pitching staff lacks options, but rather because Aschenbeck and Cortez were two of the best relievers in the history of the Aggie baseball program. In fact, there's a strong argument to be made that they were the most dominant one-two punch in America last season. They were that good.

Finding fresh blood to "replace" two pivotal pieces like that will, undoubtedly, be extremely difficult.

However, outs are outs, and at the end of the day, just getting them is more important than how they're accrued or who records them.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

A&M’s pitching coach Jason Kelly was most recently Washington’s head man.

If the starter gets 21 and leaves six for the bullpen, great. If he gets five and the relievers gobble up 22, wonderful. Just get them.

The good news for the Aggies is that however you want to maneuver your prognostications in terms of roles, they have plenty of talented options — both stylistically and aesthetically — to win the race to 27.

If you've been paying attention, I've long discussed a subset of pitchers that I believe could go a long way to answering the aforementioned question regarding providing those outs left behind by Aschenbeck and Cortez, as well as unlocking the total potential of this team.

To me, the pitchers on this roster who are in their second season of college baseball (high school class of 2023) hold the keys that could take this bullpen and staff from good to elite.

Even if you took them completely out of the equation, I think there would be enough quality and experience on the mound to navigate — albeit nervously — the rough terrain of an SEC season, given the offensive potential of the club. Still, their presence and capacity as a group are formidable, and the impact they could have on this team is immense.

So, let's take a deeper dive into the names and examine how each arsenal could fit into the 27-out puzzle.

LHP Kaiden Wilson - Sophomore

Wilson saw his role increase as the season progressed in 2024. He gained valuable experience and, while he did get his nose bloodied at times, showed strides in understanding how to handle himself in big moments. The outing he had against Oregon in the Super Regional stands out as a turning point moment. He has been a bit bothered by a nagging injury, but it shouldn't be of long-term concern. His fastball has been up in the 96-97 mph range, and he has worked hard this offseason on both the command and shape of his slider. There's no question he is one of the more talented arms on the entire pitching staff.
Potential Role: Starter, Middle Relief, Late Game Matchup

LHP Jackson Brasseux - Redshirt Freshman

Will Huffman, TexAgs

As a senior at Paris North Lamar High School, Jackson Brasseux pitched 48.2 innings and struck out 87 batters.

For a while during the fall, no one on the pitching staff was generating more buzz than Brasseux, who missed his entire true freshman season recovering from Tommy John. He was a little erratic with the strike zone during the exhibitions, but the quality of stuff coming out of that left arm is undeniable. His mechanics are efficient. His levers work well. The free and easy delivery results in a fastball that plays better than the velocity numbers (90-94 mph) portray, a la Ryan Prager. He'll need to harness the command of his secondary offerings, but I suspect he'll get his name called early in the season so the coaching staff can get a look at him under the bright lights.
Potential Role: Starter, Middle Relief, Late Game Matchup

LHP Austin Vargas - Redshirt Freshman

Another southpaw who missed 2024 with an injury, Vargas is the tallest player on the team at 6-foot-9. He's still finding his footing after rehab but has shown noticeable improvement this preseason. It'll likely be hard for him to carve out a role early in the season, given the sheer number of arms who are further along, but the frame and upside do provide some intrigue. If his strength can continue to grow and his analytics keep improving, he does have some outliers in his delivery that can make the optics difficult for a hitter.
Potential Role: Reliever

RHP Weston Moss - Sophomore

I really liked what I saw out of the Montgomery Lake Creek product as a freshman last spring. Moss pitches with a chip on his shoulder, and the emotion comes out in big moments. I like that from a pitcher if it matches their personality. It never felt forced out of Moss, in my opinion. His arsenal has improved with the implementation of a sweeper to play off his fantastic power changeup, which is often used to get him out of trouble. His next step is the ability to land both of those offspeed pitches when he has to have them (i.e., in a 2-0 count to a power left-handed bat).

Another year in the weight room has been beneficial as Moss has started to aesthetically fit the mold of a weekend starter in an SEC rotation. A quality sophomore campaign would do wonders for his future in the game as well as the future of the A&M program.
Potential Role: Starter, Middle Relief

RHP Isaac Morton - Sophomore

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Isaac Morton made 10 appearances with four starts in 2024. He finished his freshman season with 2.87 ERA in 15.2 IP.

I spoke to Jackson Appel recently. He has been hanging around College Station before he heads off to Spring Training. To stay sharp, he has helped the Aggie catchers with bullpens. Recently, he got behind the dish during one of Morton's sessions. He said it was the best pure "stuff" he'd ever caught. It's not a stretch to say that the Minnesota native is número uno on this pitching staff when it comes to arm talent.

He reminds me of a young Corbin Martin who, like Morton, was the type of guy to walk a pair and strike out three in an inning. The fastball is going to be in the 94-98 mph range with incredible life and a late run. He also learned a cutter this offseason to go along with a slider (one of which this spring had 27 inches of horizontal movement) and changeup. If there's a thought in replacing Chris Cortez with a power right-hander, Morton is your guy. He just has to throw it over the plate and then be able to deal with it if it gets hit.
Potential Role: Starter, Long Relief, Closer

RHP Clayton Freshcorn - Sophomore (McLennan CC)

It wasn't long ago that Freshcorn was a gangly, long-limbed shortstop trying to make his way in the recruiting world coming out of Waller High School. His prospects as a player began to change when, as he began to fill out a little bit, he got on the pitcher's mound. Fast forward to today where after a year at one of the elite junior college programs in the country, he comes to Aggieland with a real shot to lock down the closer role.

Freshcorn has been sensational both in fall workouts and in this preseason build-up. His fastball is electric (95-98 mph) and has some metrics on it that have been particularly eye-opening to the professional scouts that have made their way to Blue Bell Park. For instance, at 5-foot-11, Freshcorn possesses a pitch release that sits in the 6-foot-7 range.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Clayton Freshcorn transferred to Texas A&M after one season at McLennan, where he made 16 appearances with 10 starts.

The question mark on him leaving McLennan was the inconsistencies that he was having with the slider. He struggled to get the combination of spin axis, shape and velocity tied together. Under the tutelage of Jason Kelly and the analytical feedback from Jack Mahala and Jace Hutchins, that pitch has come a long way in the last six months. I'm excited for the fan base to see this kid throw.
Potential Role: Middle Relief, Closer

RHP Ty Baker - Redshirt Freshman

If you were creating a player on your favorite baseball video game, Ty Baker looks like the prototype you'd build for a power right-handed pitcher. At 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, the Houston native carries a commanding presence on the rubber. He's also carrying some confidence entering the season after being one of the talks of fall practice then subsequently backing that up with a run of strong outings in the preseason scrimmages. He recently cracked the triple-digit mark with the fastball.

While that will obviously play well, it's an off-metric, weird sort of curveball that has had many of the Aggies' top bats shaking their heads as they exit the batter's box in recent weeks. I'm not sure exactly what they're calling it, but it shares characteristics of a slider, curveball and even splitter in terms of its action. Overall, the command needs to be more consistent, but there are some elite arrows in his quill that I believe the coaching staff will be keen to unleash as early as they can to see how he responds in a real environment.
Potential Role: Middle Relief, Closer