Jay Johnson praises Daniel Dickinson for battling through broken hamate bone in LSU's title run

The LSU Tigers went on a tremendous run to a national championship in 2025. That’s a run that saw so many players become stars that others may have gone under the radar. Certainly, head coach Jay Johnson believes that the play of Daniel Dickinson was underappreciated at the time.

Dickinson played in the postseason despite breaking his hamate bone in the opening game. That injury wasn’t widely known at the time, but now that it is, Johnson took the time to praise one of his star players.

“Yeah, that was something else,” Jay Johnson said. “So, the first game of the NCAA Tournament is always one of the most important ones. First game of the Regional. We’re playing Little Rock, who obviously was a really quality team by how they played here in this Regional. He had two homers in that game. We won 7-0. It was one of his best games of the season.”

The hamate bone is a small bone in the hand, which baseball players can occasionally injure when swinging a bat and making contact, causing a vibration in their hand. Perhaps the most famous player to break his hamate bone doing that was Mike Trout. In the three-time AL MVP’s case, it cost him the second half of the 2023 season after a July 3rd injury that required surgery. On average, return takes six to eight weeks. Daniel Dickinson played through it.

“I actually saw this happen. He fouled a pitch off and I saw him shake his hand, and I go, ‘Man, I really hope that’s not his hamate.’ I mean, I actually saw when it happened, but he didn’t say anything. He was actually in the postgame with me. Then, the next day, we beat Dallas Baptist 12-0. He didn’t say anything about it, but he didn’t really look right if that makes sense. The next morning, he came in and said he did the X-rays, it’s a broken hamate bone,” Johnson said.

“He’s like, ‘Coach, I came here for the postseason. I do not want to hurt the team, but if you think I’m better than whatever the next option is, I will find a way to play.’ This dude’s a stud, man. In every facet of things. And I was like, ‘Let’s go for it.’ And I said, ‘If I feel like I need to make a move at some point, I’ll make a move. But for now, we’re rolling as is.'”

The reality is that Daniel Dickinson wouldn’t be able to be the same player with a broken hamate bone that he was before the injury. So, LSU found ways around it. That included bunting more. It also meant sliding him lower in the lineup.

“Isaac Trujillo, our trainer, is like an unsung hero of this thing. He doesn’t get enough credit. He got him treated properly and taped up properly. He was in so much pain,” Johnson said. “But he was still trying to take BP and stuff. It would like make me uncomfortable when he would swing in BP. I’m like, ‘Are you sure you don’t want to call it four really good bolts in the game and call it a day?’ Then we started developing like when we were gonna bunt with him or try to bunt. I’d slid him down in the order, and we had enough good hitters, so we kind of gradually did it from third to fifth to seventh to eighth, and nobody really picked up on it, which was awesome.”

For the season, Daniel Dickinson hit for a .315 average and a .983 OPS. Then, in 11 postseason games, he would add nine more hits. The majority of those came once LSU got to Omaha, and three of which were in the championship series.

“Maybe the hit of the World Series was his bunt in the first game against Arkansas. We got the three runs. Somehow, he managed to get six hits in five games in Omaha. Two of them were drag bunts and he played flawless defense as always. So awesome, man. Our thing for the year was tough and together,” Johnson said. “And it’s like if that doesn’t epitomize physical toughness, I don’t know what does. I was so relieved when I finally got to say something afterward. Like, ‘Lay off my man. The dude has been playing with a broken hand and played pretty darn good from my chair through that time.'”

In the end, the LSU Tigers have won their second national championship in three seasons. That’s a tribute to the culture Jay Johnson has built in Baton Rouge, and what players are willing to do for postseason success.