The upside of the 2026 Longhorns baseball teams hangs in the balance over the next several weeks.
The college baseball calendar doesn’t afford coaches the opportunity to take vacations after the season is over, so on Monday morning, hours after the Texas Longhorns were eliminated from the Austin Regional by the UTSA Roadrunners, the baseball offices on the Forty Acres were buzzing before 8 a.m. to begin the complicated process of roster management.
In an interview with AM 1300 on Thursday, Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle described the next eight weeks as the busiest time of the year for the staff, calling the process the Longhorns would otherwise be undertaking while simultaneously preparing for a Super Regional three times the amount of work for the staff compared to the actual season.
“We’re crazy busy right now trying to reshape the roster for next year,” Schlossnagle said. “I would rather be more crazy busy and still be playing and figure it out as we go along, but we’re able to be a little more specific with exactly what we would like to get in recruiting, whether it be the transfer portal or holding on to the kids we’ve signed.”
As the rest of the staff evaluated options in the NCAA transfer portal, Schlossnagle held exit meetings with every player on the team to determine their futures.
“The honest thing to do is to give them an evaluation of where we see them in the program, and then they can make a decision on what’s best for them. Almost 99 percent of those conversations are super positive,” Schlossnagle said.
Regardless of the positivity of those conversations, those exit meetings represented turning points in the careers of many players with nine entering the portal between Monday and Thursday, including sophomore outfielder Tommy Farmer, a starter for most of the 2025 season, and senior left-handed pitcher Ace Whitehead, a surprisingly effective addition to the weekend rotation last season before redshirting this year after undergoing offseason surgery.
Another crucial task for the staff is determining the needs to address in the transfer portal, which Schlossnagle estimated at four or five position players and three or four pitchers depending on what happens in the MLB Draft and with portal departures from the program.
But that aspect of roster management is made extremely difficult because the transfer portal closes on July 1, two weeks before the three-day, 20-round MLB Draft ends.
Further complicating the situation this year is the unresolved status of the House vs. NCAA settlement that is keeping schools from knowing whether or not revenue sharing will go into effect for next season, a critical factor in MLB Draft decisions for high school signees and draft-eligible college players.
“Imagine playing football, and first down might be 10 yards, but it might be eight, but it could be 15, right? We’ll let you know when we get there. We just literally don’t know the rules yet, so it’s really tough,” Schlossnagle said.
The 2025 recruiting class for the Longhorns ranks No. 3 nationally with 18 signees, including several top draft prospects, but because of the recruiting timetable for baseball, the current staff has been more instrumental in building the 2026 class.
“The recruiting class that we’ve had the most impact on is the 2026 class, the guys that are going to be seniors this next year,” Schlossnagle said. “That class is super talented, so we’re probably going to have a pretty decent portal class this year, just to kind of transition this over, and then next year, if we can hold on to even half of that ‘26 class, we really have the chance to change the direction of the program from a talent standpoint.”
But there will still be some critical decisions from members of the 2025 recruiting class, especially as Schlossnagle and pitching coach Max Weiner try to add more power arms to the staff.
A recruit like Brett Crossland, a big right-hander who can top out in the mid-90s with his fastball, projects as difficult to get to campus as the No. 162 overall prospect in the Just Baseball rankings.
Another right-hander with a power arm, former Texas A&M commit Sam Cozart, is more likely to play college baseball as the No. 295 overall prospect.
Other critical decisions will come from draft-eligible players, a group that includes junior right fielder Max Belyeu, junior shortstop Jalin Flores, junior catcher Rylan Galvan, junior pitcher Ruger Riojas, and sophomore third baseman Casey Borba.
With Belyeu ranked as the No. 44 prospect, he stands to command a significant slot bonus and is a virtual lock to sign, but Flores and Galvan may have more complicated decisions in the NIL era ranked in the early 200s.
Flores is almost 22 and would forfeit any negotiating leverage in next year’s draft if he chooses to return after seeing his batting average drop nearly 100 points from 2024 to 2025. Galvan is about the same age, although his draft stock is on a more positive trajectory after a breakout season.
So finding some power to occupy a corner outfield position and building a strong defensive team up the middle are two priorities for Schlossnagle as the draft approaches with Flores and Galvan both still likely to sign unless the Texas One Fund can come up with game-changing compensation for one or both players.
“Those guys are still trying to get as much information as they can. We obviously would love to have them back, but you’ve got to start in the middle of the field,” Schlossnagle said.
Texas has already addressed the need at first base with Kimble Schuessler out of eligibility by landing Wichita State transfer Josh Livingston on Wednesday, a left-handed power bat that serves as the first of many key additions to the 2026 roster.
Just how much upside that Texas roster possesses will be determined in the next two months.