Second-year head coach Jim Schlossnagle isn’t in the prediction business as the Texas Longhorns prepare to open the 2026 season at UFCU Disch-Falk Field against the UC Davis Aggies from Feb. 13-15.
“I don’t
know if the results will be better,” Schlossnagle said in previewing the season last week.
The results in 2025?
An unexpected 41-11 regular-season record and first-place finish in the SEC at 22-8, an overachieving result considering the No. 19 preseason ranking by D1Baseball and the league’s head coaches picking the Longhorns to finish eighth in the conference.
The postseason results more closely reflected the team’s overall talent level — an extra-inning loss to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals, the opening game for Texas, and an exit from the NCAA Tournament in the Austin Regional by blowing a 6-1 lead to UTSA in the second game before falling behind 7-0 in Sunday’s loss to the Roadrunners as the lack of pitching depth doomed the Longhorns.
But the national expectations have heightened in 2026 after Schlossnagle and his staff retained some key contributors, landed impact transfers, and signed Baseball America’s No. 1 recruiting class, roster improvement highlighted by a No. 3 ranking from D1Baseball with the help of three preseason All-Americans selected by the publication — junior outfielder Aiden Robbins, junior catcher Carson Tinney, and sophomore left-hander Dylan Volantis.
Afforded more time to recruit portal and high school prospects than the shortened 2025 offseason when Schlossnagle arrived on the Forty Acres after the College World Series, Texas ultimately made major upgrades for the 2026 season to complement a strong returning core.
“I do think there’s some more versatility and some athleticism on the team that maybe we didn’t have last year, especially with some injuries that played a role last year, too,” Schlossnagle said.
The improved versatility is provided by additions like Wichita State transfer Josh Livingston, who played first base, second base, and third base for the Shockers, Stanford transfer Temo Becerra, who played second base, shortstop, and third base for the Cardinal, and Seton Hall transfer Aiden Robbins, who can play each outfield position.
Robbins is also a good athlete with range in the outfield and the ability to steal bases in addition to hitting for power. More athleticism arrived from high school after Texas signed California outfielder Anthony Pack Jr., Perfect Game’s No. 32 prospect in the 2025 class.
“If you look across the best teams, they’re able to win games in any way — so they can run bases, they can hit some homers, they play outstanding defense at all the positions,” Schlossnagle said.
Positional versatility ensures a level of functional depth that Texas struggled to find last year due to injuries, forcing Schlossnagle to start Jayden Duplantier in 10 of his 30 appearances despite hitting .163 for the season and to use freshman standout Adrian Rodriguez at second base, third base, and in the outfield.
Duplantier’s 43 at bats and the struggles of Louisiana-Monroe transfer Easton Winfield in batting .250 across 52 at bats in 24 appearances and 19 starts illustrated the thinness of last year’s Texas team — after left-handed slugger Max Belyeu was injured early in conference play, both players were among the outfield options Schlossnagle and his staff exercised, in addition to talented two-sport freshman Jonah Williams in between recovering from a collar-bone injury and a hamstring strain.
Williams played with an ability and a maturity that reflected his incredible potential, but the difference between the production expected from Belyeu, the 2024 Big 12 Player of the Year, and the production Schlossnagle got from Duplantier and Winfield was a vast gulf that the Longhorns head coach understands he has to bridge and began to bridge for the 2026 team.
“If a guy goes down, if your shortstop goes down, the second baseman can go on the left side of the field, or the third baseman can play shortstop. The outfielders, maybe they can all play center field, at least two or three of them,” Schlossnagle said.
“So that’s what we’re trying to get to, and the draft hit us a little bit, especially in the outfield, more so than we would have liked at the very end of the summer, but we feel good about the guys that can run out there and do different things.”
Attempting to bolster the outfield, Texas landed standout Butler transfer Jack Moroknek, but the Indiana product signed with the Washington Nationals when he was selected in the 11th round of the 2025 MLB Draft. Georgia State transfer Kaleb Freeman, who was expected to bring his own versatility to the Forty Acres, took a similar path in inking with the Chicago White Sox as a 17th-round selection after committing to Texas from the portal.
Moroknek wasn’t the only 11th-round portal defection for Texas, either — Mississippi State transfer left-hander Luke Dotson is now in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization after he was picked in the same round as Moroknek.
But even though the Longhorns weren’t able to retain every transfer portal addition and lost several signees to the draft, as well, Schlossnagle and his staff were able to get some key signees to campus as part of that top-ranked signing class, including a number of talented power arms who will greatly increase the physicality on the mound of the Texas staff under Max Weiner and afford the staff more options across group.
Meanwhile, returning standouts like left-hander Luke Harrison, right-hander Ruger Riojas, right-hander Max Grubbs, and left-hander Dylan Volantis provide certainty on the pitching staff that didn’t exist heading into last season because Harrison had only pitched 10 innings in 2024 making his return from Tommy John surgery, Grubbs missed the fall recovering from his own injury, and Indiana State transfer Jared Spencer was transitioning from a Missouri Valley Conference reliever to an SEC starter.
“I think there are more known commodities on this team from a pitching staff standpoint,” Schlossnagle said.
And among the freshmen pitchers, the Longhorns head coach believes that two or three have a chance to earn a spot in the starting rotation and two or three more could become super relievers. Several transfer portal additions add further power and physicality to the bullpen.
If Weiner’s pitching staff was the true avatar of the team overachieving despite lacking the pure velocity that Schlossnagle covets to compete in the SEC, it’s the pitching that received the biggest upgrade with proven returnees supplemented by the young flamethrowers.
But some of Schlossnagle’s reticence to publicly set his own high expectations for his 2026 Texas team stem from his continued roster-building efforts that remain in an early stage across the rest of his roster.
“I think the frontline position players, if we can stay healthy, are as good as a lot of teams will play. But again, the depth of the position player group is still something that that part of it takes time because you can’t build depth without the really good high school players,” Schlossnagle said.
So the margin of error isn’t where Schlossnagle hopes it will be, but with a proven coaching staff and talent infusion, the Horns have a chance to produce similar regular-season results before making a run at Omaha and competing there with some injury luck.
That’s the standard on the Forty Acres that Schlossnagle looks poised to make a consistent reality for the Longhorns.
