Cal Fisher took quite a leap of faith to tie his baseball future to Link Jarrett and Florida State.
The Deerfield, Wis., native originally committed to play for Jarrett at Notre Dame, and when Jarrett left the Irish to coach his alma mater after the 2022 season, Fisher prioritized the opportunity to play for the coach over heading to South Bend and staying close to home, flipping his commitment to Florida State.
Safe to say that decision has paid off for Fisher. A year after Jarrett took over at Florida
State, Fisher made a trek of over 1,000 miles to join the Seminoles in Tallahassee, Fla. In the time since, the junior has gone from rotational starter as a freshman to everyday starter as a sophomore and now an expected team leader and top contributor entering his draft-eligible season.
“It’s easy to buy into what he does as a coach. Building that relationship for so long at Notre Dame and just being one of his recruits for a couple years, my parents, the rest of my family felt very comfortable sending me off, basically,” Fisher told Tomahawk Nation of Jarrett. “Him coming down here, they felt like right at home and sent me down. I just kept building that relationship with him, trusting him. He’s made me better and better every every day, on and off the field. I can’t be more appreciative of making the trip down here.”
To Fisher, that focused development is exactly how things are supposed to work in Jarrett’s program, something he fully embraces.
“Get you in, get you acclimated with the program, then you have to just take it over yourself,” he said. “I feel like that’s what he’s built here is just the next guy up, and then you learn from those guys before you and it’s just keeps on going.”
Fisher made a splash in 2024 in his 14 starts (31 appearances), hitting .270 with five home runs in 63 at-bats. After Cam Smith was a first-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, Fisher stepped into the starting third base spot with both Alex Lodise and Drew Faurot back. He started 52 of the team’s 58 games and took a step forward with a .303 batting average, eight homers, 11 doubles and 37 RBIs.
Entering the 2026 season, his lineup spot seems certain to be in an important spot. Five of the seven batters who started 35-plus games and hit over .300 last season are gone. Only Fisher and Myles Bailey are left.
Fisher’s defensive position entering the season is less certain. Staying at third is an option, but he may also be called on to take over at short or second base depending the pieces around him.
Considering he has collegiate experience at all three spots, he’s perfectly fine playing wherever is best for the team.
“I feel like I’m comfortable at all three (spots), and I feel like that gives him an option to switch the lineup around,” Fisher said. “We have a lot of young, talented guys that haven’t played significant amounts during the seasons, and a couple freshmen are very talented. So I feel like that gives the option for him to move around, balance me and feel comfortable at wherever he has me at.”
Wherever he plays, he feels ready for a leadership role. Learning the intricacies of a role like that under the likes of Smith, Lodise, James Tibbs, Conner Whittaker and Jamie Arnold, among others, Fisher feels like he’s been preparing for a leadership role like this his entire life.
“Always growing up, whether it’s football, basketball, baseball, off the field, school, I feel like it’s always come natural to me” Fisher said of leadership. “The last couple years, I’ve learned from the leaders before me. … I feel like you take bits and pieces from what you saw them do well and how they made you feel to become comfortable with the program and just like easing you into it.
“I feel like people look up to me. I don’t always have to be the loudest. I’m not a very big yeller, even though it kind of seems like I get pretty into the game, I’m a happy dude. Like, I don’t really like raising my voice, but I feel like I’m more of a (leader) by example and just do the right thing all the time.“
