Texas Baseball: Way-too-early look ahead to 2023 season
By Shane Black
Departures
Only five players on the 2022 Texas roster have exhausted their collegiate eligibility: Skyler Messinger, Marcus Olivarez, Murphy Stehly, Tristan Stevens, and Austin Todd.
It is also widely expected that redshirt junior Ivan Melendez will enter the 2022 MLB Draft after winning the Dick Howser Trophy as the nation’s best player.
So, what do these six departures mean for the 2023 Texas Longhorns?
Messinger, Stehly, Todd, and Melendez open up four everyday spots in the batting order.
For the last third of the season, those four were the 3-4-5-6 hitters in the Texas order. All four of them hit over .332 last season and were the four leaders in batting average for the Horns. They combined for 68 home runs, 63 doubles, and 245 RBI in 2022.
On top of that, third baseman Skyler Messinger is currently a finalist for the Rawlings 3B Gold Glove Award.
This means Texas is losing four very key position players that helped them reach the College World Series in 2022. You are not going to replace their production one for one. It must be a team effort with younger guys on the roster filling the “next man up” mentality.
On the bump, Texas will say goodbye to Stevens and Olivarez.
Stevens started the season as the Saturday starter but transitioned to a do-it-all bullpen role halfway through the season. The Missouri native certainly did not have the success he was hoping for when he decided to return for a fifth season. However, Stevens did have some big moments, including a fantastic 6.0 inning start in Game 3 of the Super Regional.
Olivarez made 19 appearances in 2022, pitching 26.0 innings while allowing just two earned runs. Although the redshirt senior did not pitch in many high-leverage situations, he did his job anytime Pierce called on him.
The loss of Stevens and Olivarez is certainly not ideal but will be a much easier gap to fill compared to the four position players. Texas has a stack of live arms in their clubhouse, but who will take the ball and step up?