Inside the unique way that Max Weiner trains Texas pitchers to improve their fielding

In recent games, Longhorns pitchers have helped themselves on the mound by displaying their athleticism. It’s not an accident.

Wednesdays at UFCU Disch-Falk Field present an unusual scene.

Shirtless, the pitchers for the Texas Longhorns occupy the infield positions around the diamond and field ground balls, working on their athleticism and ability to make throws from different angles, reflecting pitching coach Max Weiner’s emphasis on throwing from a variety of arm slots.

Playing four games a week presents few opportunities to practice during the condensed college baseball season, so Weiner makes the most of his chances to improve his protege’s fielding acumen.

In an orthodox sport with a remarkably limited number of on-field outcomes, finding ways to produce an edge is difficult, but Weiner has done it by training his pitchers like infielders.

The key is pushing back against the current era of intersport and intrasport specialization.

“I hate the term pitcher-only, and when you put that tag on a player at a young age, they lose their athleticism. They don’t play other sports these days,” Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle said during his Monday appearance on the Around the Horns podcast.

After Weiner joined Schlossnagle’s staff at Texas A&M last year, one of the first beneficiaries of that approach was flame-throwing right-hander Chris Cortez, a second-round selection by the Los Angeles Angels in the 2024 MLB Draft.

Schlossnagle asked Cortez if he’d ever played shortstop, assuming that a player possessing the talent that Cortez does would be the team’s best player and occupy that position growing up.

But Cortez told his head coach that he’d never played infield before in his entire baseball career — if the value in the approach of getting pitchers repetitions as middle infielders hadn’t calcified for Schlossnagle before that moment, it certainly helped.

When Schlossnagle and Weiner arrived on the Forty Acres, they kept that approach.

“I think Max has done a really good job over the course of the entire spring of just developing the athleticism of the players,” Schlossnagle said.

It’s been paying off in demonstrable ways for a Texas team that has maintained its No. 1 ranking for two straight weeks thanks to home sweeps of Auburn and Texas A&M, including three straight one-run wins over the Aggies that put a premium on winning in the small margins that define high-level baseball.

Playing infield demands making the type of off-platform throws that vaulted Longhorns assistant Troy Tulowitzki to two Gold Gloves during his standout 13-year career in the majors and that’s exactly what junior right-hander Ruger Riojas did on Friday in the 3-2 win by Texas over Texas A&M in the fourth inning to start a double play.

Up 1-0 in the fourth inning with a runner on first base and one out, Riojas got off the mound quickly to his left, fielded the ground ball, and delivered an accurate, sidearm throw to second base to start the double play.

It was a defining moment in the game, looming even larger after Riojas gave up an infield single and a single to center field that brought up A&M slugger Jace LaViolette, a matchup made more difficult because LaViolette is a left-handed batter. On a 2-1 pitch from Riojas, LaViolette hit it well to center field, but the park held it and sophomore center fielder Will Gasparino was able to make the play on the warning track.

On Sunday, another play in the fourth inning showcased the value of Weiner’s approach.

While senior right-hander Andre Duplantier has a background as a position player, making two starts at third base in 2020, that was five years ago. So Weiner surely deserves some credit for Duplantier’s ability to get off the mound on a sacrifice bunt attempt after a leadoff single with the game tied 2-2 in the fourth inning, covering for the shift put on by Schlossnagle and making a play that was critical to limit the damage during an inning when the Aggies were later able to produce a two-out, two-run double.

The athleticism of junior right-hander Max Grubbs was also on display in the ninth inning as the Longhorns tried to maintain their 6-5 lead after a walk and a single to put runners on first and second with one out.

Grubbs got ahead 1-2 against Texas A&M shortstop Kaiden Kent and threw the type of sharp breaking ball that often induces grounders. Indeed, Kent pulled it on the ground to Texas senior first baseman Kimble Schuessler, who made a strong throw to second as Grubbs hustled off the mound and got his foot down on first base to receive the throw from junior shortstop Jalin Flores.

The throw was on time and Grubbs did well to make contact with the bag, ensuring that the play stood on review to send the Longhorns to the series sweep over their longtime rivals.

Taking the series as a whole, it’s arguable that one difference between the sweep and a series loss to the Aggies was the ability of the Longhorns pitchers to field their position with athleticism and make subsequent critical throws when necessary, not always an easy task because the in-game situations that demand them are not especially frequent.

What’s not arguable is that succeeding in those margins is what currently sets Texas apart from the entire country playing in the nation’s most rugged baseball conference with an historic 19-2 record that gives the Longhorns a five-game lead over the Razorbacks.