(Photo: Michael Bacigalupi)
BATON ROUGE, La. – Eleven former LSU players appear on Major League Baseball active rosters as the 2026 MLB season opens this week.
Former Tigers appearing on MLB active rosters include pitcher Paul Skenes (Pittsburgh Pirates), infielder Alex Bregman (Chicago Cubs), pitcher Aaron Nola (Philadelphia Phillies), pitcher Kevin Gausman (Toronto Blue Jays), infielder Josh Smith (Texas Rangers), outfielder Jake Fraley (Tampa Bay Rays), pitcher Alex Lange (Kansas City Royals), pitcher Jaden Hill (Colorado Rockies), catcher Hunter Feduccia (Tampa Bay Rays), pitcher Cole Henry (Washington Nationals) and pitcher Grant Taylor (Chicago White Sox).
LSU has had at least one former player make his MLB debut in 31 of the past 35 seasons. The Tigers have produced a total of 91 Major Leaguers during their illustrious baseball history.
Skenes, who made his MLB debut on May 11, 2024, was voted the 2024 National League Rookie of the Year and the 2025 NL Cy Young Award winner. He enjoyed a remarkable first season, posting an 11-3 record and a 1.96 ERA in 133.0 innings (23 starts) with 32 walks and 170 strikeouts.
He was 10-10 last season with a 1.97 ERA in 187.2 innings while recording 42 walks and 216 strikeouts. Skenes, who was chosen by Pittsburgh as the No. 1 overall selection in the 2023 MLB Draft, has been the starting pitcher for the National League in each of the past two All-Star Games.
At LSU, Skenes was the 2023 Dick Howser Award winner, the D1 Baseball National Player of the Year, and the SEC Pitcher of the Year, as he helped lead the Tigers to the National Championship. He compiled a 13-2 record and a 1.69 ERA in 122.2 innings with 20 walks and an SEC-record 209 strikeouts, and he finished No. 1 in the nation in strikeouts (209), strikeouts per nine innings (15.33) and WHIP (0.75).
The product of Lake Forest, Calif., in 2023 finished No. 2 in the nation in ERA (1.69), No. 3 in strikeout-to-walk ratio (10.45), and No. 5 in hits allowed per nine innings (5.28). He was voted the Most Outstanding Player of the College World Series, as he was 1-0 in two starts with a 1.15 ERA in 15.2 innings, allowing two runs on seven hits with two walks and 21 strikeouts.
Bregman, who is entering his 11th MLB season and his first with the Cubs, played at LSU from 2013 through 2015 and led the Tigers to two College World Series appearances. The No. 2 overall selection by the Houston Astros in the 2015 MLB Draft, Bregman was a two-time first-team all-American at LSU, and he was named the recipient of the 2013 Brooks Wallace Award as the nation’s best shortstop.
Bregman, a product of Albuquerque, N.M., made his MLB debut with the Astros in July 2016, and he helped lead Houston to four AL pennants and the 2017 and 2022 World Series titles as the club’s starting third baseman.
He was named the 2018 All-Star Game MVP after blasting the game-winning home run for the American League, and he was named the recipient of the 2019 Silver Slugger Award as the best offensive player at third base in the AL. Bregman, an American League Gold Glove Award winner with Houston in 2024, played the 2025 season with the Boston Red Sox, batting .273 with 28 doubles, 18 homers, and 62 RBI, and he was named an All-Star for the third time in his career.
Nola, a Baton Rouge native, enters his 12th season in the Philadelphia rotation, and he was instrumental in the Phillies’ drive to the 2022 National League pennant. He was selected in the first round of the 2014 MLB Draft by the Phillies, and he was named a 2018 National League All-Star.
Nola finished third in the 2018 NL Cy Young Award voting after posting a 17-6 record with a 2.37 ERA. In 2022, he registered the most strikeouts (235) with fewer than 30 walks (29) in Major League Baseball History.
Nola was a two-time first-team All-American at LSU, and he was voted SEC Pitcher of Year in both 2013 and 2014. He completed his three-year LSU career with a 30-6 record, a 2.09 ERA and 345 strikeouts in 332.0 innings.
Gausman, who pitched at LSU in 2011 and 2012, begins his 14th MLB season and his fifth with the Blue Jays. He helped lead Toronto to the 2025 American League pennant, logging a 10-11 record and a 3.59 ERA in 193 innings with 50 walks and 189 strikeouts.
He was voted to the 2023 American League All-Star team, and he helped lead Toronto to a playoff berth in 2023 by posting a 12-9 mark with a 3.16 ERA and 237 strikeouts in 185.0 innings.
Gausman was a 2021 National League All-Star with the San Francisco Giants, recording a 14-6 mark with a 2.81 ERA and 227 strikeouts in 192 innings. The native of Centennial, Colo., earned first-team All-America honors at LSU in 2012, and he was selected in the first round of the MLB Draft by the Baltimore Orioles.
Smith, a Baton Rouge product, was called up to the Rangers’ MLB roster in May of 2022, and he helped lead Texas to the club’s first World Series title in 2023. He was the recipient of the 2024 Silver Slugger Award as the best offensive player in the American League at the utility position, batting .258 with 30 doubles, one triple, 13 homers and 62 RBI.
Smith was the second-round selection of the New York Yankees in the 2019 MLB Draft and was traded in July 2021 from the Yankees to the Rangers.
He played at LSU from 2017-19, and he was the Tigers’ starting shortstop in 2019 after missing most of the 2018 season with a stress reaction in his vertebrae. He was the starting third baseman for LSU’s 2017 College World Series runners-up team, earning Freshman All-America and Freshman All-SEC recognition.
Smith, a three-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll as a finance major, was LSU’s leading hitter in 2019, batting .346 (89-for-257) with 17 doubles, two triples, nine homers, 41 RBI, 72 runs and 20 steals in 24 attempts.
Fraley begins his eighth MLB season and his first with Tampa Bay after spending the final few weeks of last season with the Atlanta Braves. He played for the Cincinnati Reds from 2022 until August 2025, and for the Seattle Mariners for three seasons (2019-21).
The Rays’ second-round draft choice in 2016, Fraley was traded to Seattle in November 2018 and first advanced to the Major League roster in August 2019.
Fraley, a native of Middletown, Del., helped lead LSU to the SEC championship and a College World Series berth in 2015, and he was named the recipient of LSU Baseball’s 2016 Skip Bertman Award as the player who best exemplifies the spirit of the program.
Lange, who made his MLB debut with the Detroit Tigers in April 2021, was the 2017 first-round draft selection of the Chicago Cubs. He has collected in his career 15 wins and 29 saves in 196 games for Detroit with a 3.70 ERA and 222 strikeouts in 184.2 innings.
Lange, the American League Reliever of the Month in May 2023, spent most of the 2025 season on minor league rehab assignments as he recovered from an injury. The native of Lee’s Summit, Mo., signed with the Royals in November 2025.
Lange finished his three-year career (2015-17) at LSU with a 30-9 record, becoming the 10th LSU pitcher to record 30 wins. He compiled 406 career strikeouts, the second-highest total in LSU history, and he earned first-team All-America and All-SEC honors during his collegiate career.
Hill, who pitched at LSU from 2019-21, was the Rockies’ second-round selection in the 2021 MLB Draft, and he made his Major League debut in September 2024. He made 28 relief appearances for Colorado last season, posting a 3.38 ERA in 29.1 innings with 12 walks and 31 strikeouts.
Hill, a native of Ashdown, Ark., made just 13 appearances (nine starts) during his three-season LSU career due to injury and the pandemic-related cancellation of the 2020 season. He posted a 3-3 career record and a 4.21 ERA for the Tigers in 51.1 innings with 20 walks and 53 strikeouts.
Feduccia, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 12th-round draft choice in 2018, made his MLB debut in July 2024 and appeared in five games for the World Champion Dodgers during the regular season. He was acquired by Tampa Bay from Los Angeles in July 2025.
Feduccia, a product of Lake Charles, La., in 2018 started 48 games at catcher for LSU after competing in the first two seasons of his collegiate career at LSU-Eunice, where he batted .394 in 2017.
The Nationals called up Henry, Washington’s second-round pick in the 2020 MLB Draft, in April 2025. The product of Florence, Ala., posted a 4.27 ERA in 57 relief appearances last season with 32 walks and 52 strikeouts.
Henry pitched at LSU for two seasons (2019-20), and he received Freshman All-America and Freshman All-SEC recognition in 2019, when he made 14 appearances (11 starts) and recorded a 4-2 mark and a 3.39 ERA in 58.1 innings with 18 walks and 72 strikeouts.
Taylor, a native of Florence, Ala., was the White Sox’s second-round selection in the 2023 MLB Draft, and he was promoted to the Major League roster in June 2025. He made 36 appearances for Chicago last season, recording a 4.91 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 36.2 innings.
Taylor, a two-time SEC Academic Honor Roll designee, was a member of the LSU pitching staff in 2022 and 2023, though he had to miss the 2023 season due to injury.
As a true freshman in 2022, Taylor pitched in 17 games (two starts) for the Tigers, recording a 4-1 mark and a 5.81 ERA in 31.0 innings with 21 walks and 39 strikeouts.