This offseason, after LSU had put the finishing touches on its second national championship in three years, outfielder Derek Curiel was having a conversation with coach Jay Johnson.
Curiel, after spending years dreaming of being a center piece to a national championship team, accomplished it in mere months of being in Baton Rouge. But shifting focus to the 2026 season, a rest needed to occur, Curiel knew it, but didn’t know the best way to go about doing that.
“He told me the best advice he can give me is just putting in the rearview mirror. So that’s something I’ve been trying to do. Obviously, I’m very proud of what our team accomplished and what I accomplished last year. But for me, I’m setting my sights forward on trying to do it again,” Curiel said. “I do have personal goals, I do have team goals for this year that I look forward to accomplishing that are bigger than last year. So I’m super excited to do that. But for me right now, it’s just full steam ahead.”
These sophomores climbed to the highest of highs as true freshmen, winning a national championship. Players like John Pearson, Cade Arrambide, Mavrick Rizy and William Schmidt were part of the plans throughout the regular season but got a chance to learn and watch in the postseason.
For Curiel, Casan Evans and even Cooper Williams, they were right at the center of the championship pursuit in the postseason. Curiel was LSU’s leading hitter in the NCAA tournament, batting .390 with a home run, 10 RBI and 13 runs scored. Evans almost single handedly saved the Tigers’ season in the regional round against Little Rock with an all-time great relief pitching performance and followed that up with a save against Arkansas in Omaha in the College World Series opener.
These two players in particular will be right at the center in whatever this 2026 team hopes to accomplish in 2026 and do so with the knowledge of knowing what it takes to get to a championship level.
Curiel has spent this offseason getting ready for a few different changes, both physically and in the field. He put on 20 pounds of muscle, eating four to five times a day and snacking in between as well, eating to the point where he can’t eat anymore. Not a bad lifestyle coming off a title win in your first collegiate season.
After finishing the 2025 season at 174 pounds, he now enters this fall at 194 and says his body is in much better shape to accomplish what he wants to on the field and at the plate. That power element to his swing is something we started to see come along towards the end of his freshman season and should only get better now that he’s added that strength.
“I think that was kind of the point of me lifting, was I can be the same exact player I’ve been, just with a bigger engine, coach calls it. So that way I don’t have to try as hard to hit homers. But I think with being stronger and playing the same exact game, I think that’ll come along with it for sure,” Curiel said.
That body transformation also leads directly into what his second big change this season will be, shifting to center field. Johnson made the announcement on Thursday that Curiel would move to center for the upcoming season and Stanfield would shift to left field.
“That was always the plan and it was put in place because honestly I’m shocked that Chris [Stanfield] is back. This was a plan of a long time ago so what a blessing for us. His [Stanfield] response was “I’m good with whatever you’re good with.” He’s a phenomenal human being,” Johnson said.
“Getting to play outfield with Chris Stanfield, I got to learn a lot from him; obviously, he did a great job last year. So, being able to learn from him as a teammate as a friend is super valuable,” Curiel said. “I feel like I’m pretty prepared.”
For Evans, the goal is to move from being one of the best relievers in all of college baseball to one of the best starters in the country. He showed last year that whatever the team needed out of the bullpen, whether it was one inning, two or even six, that he was up to the task.
Moving into a position to be a starter is a different kind of mindset, a different buildup and that’s something he’s actively worked on this offseason and will get started with this fall.
“I think this year the main focus has been fastball command and being able to go longer into the games,” Evans said. “Wanting to be in that starter role this year is a big thing for me so trying to get my body right to go six plus innings is the biggest goal for me. I want to be kind of in the same role Kade Anderson was in last year.”
“As far as Casan, just the competitiveness and getting himself ready to win constantly, the poise in the biggest moments of the game. That’s something you can point to for all the young pitchers, this is how we want to do it,” Johnson said.
These two will certainly take on more of a leadership role with their past success as well. While not the most vocal guys on the team, they do have a quality to them that the work they put in directly rubs off on others and Johnson is excited to see that evolve over the course of the next six weeks in particular.
“They’re as impactful as freshman players as you can have for a national championship team. Neither of them are maybe over the top outgoing but they do the right things. So when they speak, their teammates listen and some of that will advance more as we get together collectively,” Johnson said.