In 2025 the worst kept secret regarding LSU Baseball lied with Derek Curiel and his future in Baton Rouge.
From the moment he made it to campus the expectation was Curiel, a draft-eligible sophomore, would spend two years in the purple and gold, and his second season would be spent playing centerfield. Flash forward to today and, whaddya know, Derek Curiel is primed to play centerfield and be a top-1o pick this summer.
I’m not sure where exactly Curiel’s 2025 ranks in terms of “Best Freshmen Seasons
in LSU Baseball History,” but it’s way up there. Curiel was the best position player on a national championship-winning team, and he did that as an 18-year-old playing his first ever season of collegiate baseball. That just doesn’t happen.
Curiel was a day-one starter for the Tigers, and started all 68 games last spring. Curiel primarily played left field (62 of 68 starts coming there) but started three games in center, and three games as the Tiger DH. Curiel led LSU with a .345 average and was one of the best batters across the entire SEC.
Curiel led the SEC with 20 doubles. He also ranked top-five in the conference hits (4th/89), walks (3rd/53), On Base Percentage (4th/.470) and was “only” sixth in runs (67) while his .345 batting average ranked 10th. And if all that wasn’t enough, he also committed zero errors in 2025.
Curiel must have some kind of severe allergic reaction to “outs” because it felt like SEC pitchers couldn’t do it. Curiel reached base in the first 43 games of his collegiate career, which was the fifth-longest streak in LSU history, and the four men in front of him are some of the best Tigers this program has ever had: Crews (71), Mahtook (56), Dugas (55) and Bregman (49). That’s the company that Curiel already keeps.
They say that the biggest jump an athlete makes is from their first year to their second year, and if that’s the case with Curiel then…yikes. Curiel already posses elite discipline at the plate and he can work two-strike counts like nobody else.
The biggest improvement we’ll likely see in Curiel’s game is an uptick in power. Curiel’s put on weight this offseason (somewhere between 15-20 pounds) so does that extra muscle lead to a few more home runs? He’ll never have Bear Jones or Tommy Tanks power, heck he may not even have Dylan Crews power, but can Curiel go from seven home runs to 12? I think that’s a more than doable.
Derek Curiel was probably the worst he’ll ever be and that was still good enough to lead a national championsip team in batting average, start every day, and get on base in the first 43 games of the season. If he’s even one percent better as a sophomore, then he’s arguably the best player in the country.
We need to enjoy these next couple of months watching Derek Curiel wear the Championship Golds because this season is going to be his last. Since we’re always keeping an eye on the future, then look for true freshman William Patrick to potentially be the heir apparent in center.
Patrick was the No. 2 overall player in Louisiana according to Perfect Game and the No. 121 overall player going into last July’s draft. Patrick doesn’t quite have the hit tool yet, but he’s got plenty of speed and defense to be, at the very worst, a pinch runner/defensive replacement in 2026.
The speed is already at an elite level as Patrick set the MLB Combine record with a 6.29 60-yard dash and his arm and defense are both quite good already. Basically he’s Andrew Stevenson, and once the hit tool comes along, William Patrick ought to give LSU another first rounder playing centerfield.
