Jim Schlossnagle Reshapes Texas: Near-Total Defensive Reset, Pitching Corps Stays Intact
Many assume that despite the incredible year one under Jim Schlossnagle, the collective talent of his first team at Texas will probably be his least talented for quite a while. This is based off the assumption that his players will be better than the ones David Pierce brought to Texas and left for Schlossnagle in year one. Let’s look at some of the wholesale changes that Schlossnagle has made transitioning into his second season at Texas.
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This is not going to be an article dissecting talent, or telling you if there is an upgrade at a certain position. This is simply examining how different the 2025 and 2026 rosters will be. The 2026 Texas Baseball team will likely have a new starter at every single position save for second and third base. That is six of the eight defensive positions on the field.
For the outfield, the only returning players Texas has with starting experience are Jonah Williams with 13 games started in left field and Jayden Duplantier with five in left field as well. Currently Williams is looking like a favorite option to start in center field, with Jack Moroknek and Aiden Robbins playing the corners.
Looking at the infield isn’t much better for returning defenders. Catcher, shortstop, and first base will all have new names at these positions in the starting lineup. Ironically, these were three of Texas’ four true ironmen on roster. Shortstop and first base are the only two positions in 2025 where Texas only started one player for the entire 58 game season.
Unlike second and third base, catcher does not have a starter or backup returning to the roster.
If you look at second and third, every single player who started a game for the Longhorns there in 2025 is another is still roster. The portal is also now closed to new entries. It is a reasonable assumption that all will return to the 2026 team.
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However there is a slight catch… if the above picture remains accurate up to week one of the 2026 season, only 11% of starts are returning. Nine of the thirteen starts at third for Adrian Rodriguez came in the first nine games of the season. After looking like a freshman early, Casey Borba quickly won the job and started for a majority of the games. Even if third base returns Rodriguez as a starter, that is only 22% of third base starts. The same logic applied to second base tells us that only 66% of starts are returning if Ethan Mendoza starts there in 2026.
With everything considered the defensive alignment is going to look roughly 80-90% brand new in 2026. However the pitching staff on the other hand will be the complete opposite with only three new pitchers from the portal and Texas expecting to return every single eligible pitcher with double digit innings pitched in 2025. That is roughly 96% of the eligible innings pitched returning to 2026.
Texas baseball will look brand new in some areas, while appearing no different in others at the same time.
