Fitzgerald sees MLB Draft success marker of program build

Kansas baseball has transformed from dormant power conference non-contender to clinching its first NCAA Tournament berth in over a decade in just the three years since Dan Fitzgerald arrived on campus. Throughout the rebuild, the Jayhawks’ head coach has emphasized various benchmarks along the way to showcase the program moving in the right direction. 

In Fitzgerald’s first season in 2023, it was doubling the Big 12 win total. 2024 saw Kansas reach the Big 12 Conference Tournament Semifinals and be on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble. 2025 was a culmination of the coaching staff’s recruiting philosophy and culture paying off, with the Jayhawks setting multiple records en route to an NCAA Tournament appearance.

The development of on-the-field success has led to program records in the MLB Draft. Fitzgerald and his staff have developed nine draft picks over his three years at Kansas, including six in 2024, the most in Kansas history over the top 20 rounds. Brady Counsell, Alex Breckheimer, and Derek Cerda all heard their names called in the draft this past week.

“I think it’s a sign that the program is moving in the right direction, that we’re getting the right type of players, that development is happening,” Fitzgerald told JayhawkSlant. “But ultimately, you get to share in these little moments with the players, with like them realizing their dream of being a professional baseball player. So it’s a pretty cool experience, and one that, you know, never gets old.”

Success in the draft powered by Kansas’ culture

Over his 20-plus years of coaching, Fitzgerald has recruited or developed 108 players who have been taken in the MLB Draft. Fitzgerald points to a holistic culture as a reason for how his staff has developed draft success at Kansas.

“I think it points to development, that guys get better here. I think it points to recruiting and that we’re getting the right guys in, but mostly I think it points to the holistic culture of us continuing to just grow and get better,” Fitzgerald said. “I think the whole culture thing is moving in such a good direction, and then the acknowledgement from professional baseball of hey, these are the type of guys we want, I think it’s a really rewarding thing.”

Counsell, Breckheimer, and Cerda were all transfers who spent just one season in the Kansas program. Breckheimer and Cerda were both junior college transfers, a hallmark of the coaching staff’s recruiting philosophy. Fitzgerald said he and his staff identified that the three had the physical projection, makeup, and work ethic of future professional baseball players.

“They’re the best,” Fitzgerald said of his coaching staff. “I very specifically hired those guys, and it was literally like, those are the only calls I made. And they all took the jobs and it was for that very reason of, you know, I think there are guys that are good at recruiting, I think there are guys that are good at development, and then I think there are some guys that have great makeup and character and integrity and all that stuff so, but there’s a very, very small pool of guys that have all three.”

Draft picks weren’t a defined goal, but can be a recruiting tool

Fitzgerald said that success in the draft wasn’t a specific goal when he got to Kansas. Yet, through succeeding at the foundational pieces of getting the right players, developing them, and helping them find their ceiling, getting players drafted has become part of the equation.

“When guys choose to come here, there’s something tangible that they’ve seen grow. Part of that is to be able to say, ‘hey, we think your ceiling, we think you can do this professionally, big leagues, blah blah blah,’” Fitzgerald said. “So I think pointing to those tangible things is, I don’t think it was the goal, but it was certainly a byproduct of the foundational pieces we were trying to get in play.”

Kansas’ track record of success in the draft has become a recruiting tool. The staff is able to point at past success to outline a plan for future Jayhawks.

“We’re able to talk to recruits and say like, ‘hey, that’s kind of the model.’ And so, yeah I think history is a great predictor of a lot of things,” Fitzgerald said. “It [MLB Draft] continues to evolve, but I think it’s a huge one to be able to point at past success.”

Fitzgerald enjoys keeping up with former players

Fitzgerald spends most late nights on his phone keeping up with his former players who are on their paths in professional baseball. He said he’s been up until one in the morning looking at stats of guys he’s coached. While Fitzgerald spends a lot of time keeping up with his player’s professional stats, baseball is usually the last thing on their minds when he’s able to catch up with them.

“The cool part though, is that when you run into those guys, or you talk to them on the phone, baseball is usually the last thing to talk about,” Fitzgerald said. “There’s so much that goes into this outside of baseball, and that’s the fun part, to be able to keep up on what’s going on in their life.”