At a baseball power like the Texas Longhorns program, the Friday night starter tends to have a certain type of look — big and physical with a power arm.
Think Ty Madden, the 6’3, 215-pounder who was the No.
32 overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft by the Detroit Tigers after serving as the No. 1 starter on the Forty Acres that year.
Second-year head coach Jim Schlossnagle won’t have that type of Friday night starter in 2026, but it is a role that sophomore left-hander Dylan Volantis may fill after a sensational freshman season in which he unexpectedly emerged as the team’s closer.
In going 4-1 with a 1.94 ERA and 12 saves, Volantis was the Baseball American National Freshman of the Year and a first-team All-American by four different publications in a record-setting campaign. With 11 of his 12 saves coming in conference play, the California product set the freshman SEC record while leading all freshmen nationally in WHIP (0.88) and saves (12). His ERA (1.94) and batting average against (.185) were second among freshmen nationally as Volantis led the Horns in ERA, WHIP, saves, batting average against, and strikeouts (74).
Out of Westlake in Thousand Oaks, Volantis arrived on the baseball scene as a junior before a dominant senior season that saw him finish the 2024 cycle as the No. 147 player overall and the No. 18 left-handed pitcher in the Perfect Game rankings.
Originally a USC signee, Volantis reopened his recruitment when the Trojans let go of their pitching coach, and honed in on the Longhorns because his agent had a connection to Texas pitching coach Max Weiner.
USC’s loss quickly became Texas’ gain even as Volantis and Weiner took an extremely cautious approach to Volantis as a freshman, declining to move him into the starting rotation even after No. 1 starter Jared Spencer went down with a season-ending shoulder injury in late April.
“We’re just trying to protect him as best we can,” Schlossnagle said late in February.
Powering the rise of Volantis was his sweeping knuckle curveball with glove-side run that benefits from a unique release point from the lanky 6’6 pitcher.
“Super unique release height,” Schlossnagle said. “He’s 6’6 and he releases the ball over the top. He throws it straight downhill, and then he can spin the ball with a couple good breaking balls. You just don’t see what he does that much.”
Because Volantis has a fastball that only reached into the low 90s last year, he came an avatar for Weiner’s approach — “dominate the zone” by any means possible, including using the curveball as his featured pitch and throwing the fastball to keep hitters off balance.
Along with several other pitchers, including senior right-hander Ruger Riojas, Volantis stuck around Austin after the 2025 season ended instead of playing summer ball, focusing on adding strength. That became an even higher priority after a bout with mononucleosis at the beginning of fall practice caused him to lose weight.
The weight loss was a major warning sign for Schlossnagle and Weiner — there’s not a true consensus about what causes arm injuries in pitchers, but weight loss is a consistent indicator of a future injury, so the Longhorns coaching staff once again took a cautious approach with Volantis as he worked to regain the weight.
Now listed at 220 pounds, the hope is that Volantis has added velocity to his fastball to step into a starting role in which batters will have a chance to see his curveball multiple times in addition to the conditioning necessary to substantially increase his workload from 51 innings last season.
In 2025, left-hander Luke Harrison led Texas with 70.2 innings pitched.
Last month, Volantis said that he’s moving faster down the mound and putting less stress on his arm when he’s throwing, both positive signs that he can handle more innings aided by a changeup he’s been working to add to his arsenal.
“He’s gonna start again this weekend and then we’ll probably give him some starts leading up to conference play. He’s awesome, but he’s no different than anybody else — the guys that pitch the best pitch the most and so you go earn it, and then we’ll roll with it,” Schlossnagle said on the On Second Thought podcast last week.
But will it be on Friday night?
In the past, Schlossnagle has opted to use one of his power arms on Friday night even if they aren’t his top pitcher because more strikeouts tend to lead to longer at bats and shorter outings. So Schlossnagle would take advantage of his rested bullpen before using the pitcher he thought could go the deepest into the game on Saturday.
“There’s just a lot of things that go into it to give us the best chance to win a series is really the way I look at it,” Schlossnagle said. “What’s going to give us the best chance to win a series in our conference, right?
Volantis doesn’t have that prototypical power arm, and Schlossnagle is loathe to make predictions about how his rotation might shake out, but for as much as the Texas head coach talks about Volantis needing to go out and earn his innings, the unshakeable confidence of the talented left-hander is already proven on the SEC stage, and that’s the profile of a pitcher capable of taking the next step forward in the starting rotation for the Longhorns.
But that isn’t necessarily the mentality that Volantis is taking into the season.
“I’m not a starter or a closer, I’m a Longhorn. So whatever the coaches need, whatever the players need, I’m there for that — they want me to pitch every single day as a closer or start every single day, I’m good with whatever.”
