Where the Big Ten's Top 50 in OPS is in 2025

 

Shifting away from the mechanics of the 2025 season, there's only so much fun in drilling into schedules, it's time to look at the players that will impact those to-be played games.

Since the last time I regularly covered the Big Ten was in the Before Times (pre-pandemic) there's a bit for me to catch up on. As I start to look over rosters, I decided to see who is returning that stood atop Big Ten statistical columns. Without a standardized WAR for college baseball, I took a pretty superficial approach and looked at who led the Big Ten in OPS in 2024. Going 50 deep, here's a look at who is returning, who transferred, who was drafted after their junior season and finally those who exhausted their college eligibility. I added a few notes on what jumped out to me at the end.

The top 50 Big Ten players in OPS in 2024.

Returning Players

#2 Jr. Devin Taylor - Indiana, 1.109

#3 Gr. Joshua Fitzgerald* - Minnesota, 1.100

#7 Sr. Logan Sutter* - Purdue, 1.071

#9 Sr. Eddie Hacopian* - Maryland, 1.047

#10 Gr. Jacob Schroeder* - Illinois, 1.046

#12 Sr. Keenan Spence* - Purdue, 1.028

#15 Soph. Chris Hacopian - Maryland, 1.018

#20 r-Sr. Drake Wescott* - Illinois, .993

#23 r-Soph. Bryce Molinaro* - Penn State, .969

#24 r-Sr. Andy Nelson - Iowa, .969

#27 Sr. Jake Perry - Minnesota, .955

#28-t Jr. Weber Neels - Minnesota, .950

#30 Jr. Mitch Voit - Michigan, .945

#31 Soph. Ty Doucette - Rutgers, .944

#35 Soph. Case Sanderson - Nebraska, .919

#37 Sr. Vytas Valincius* - Illinois, .909

#40 Jr. Tyler Cerny - Indiana, .904

#41 Sr. Bennett Markinson - Northwestern, .903

#42 r-Soph. Reese Moore - Iowa, .898

#43-t Sr. Rhett Stokes* - Nebraska, .895

#45 r-Jr. Camden Gasser* - Purdue, .894

#47 Soph. Jasen Oliver - Indiana, .891

#48-t Sr. Nick Williams* - Michigan State, .886

#50 Sr. Tyler Pettorini - Ohio State, .883

Transferred

#4 Soph. Luke Gaffney - Purdue (Clemson), 1.095

#13 Soph. Collin Priest - Michigan (Clemson), 1.023

#28-t Sr. Ryan Moerman - Illinois (Mississippi), .950

#39 Sr. Brady Counsell - Minnesota (Kansas), .905

#46 Jr. Henry Kaczmar - Ohio State (South Carolina), .892

Drafted as a Junior

#6 Josh Kuroda-Grauer - Rutgers (75th pick, Oakland), 1.082

#21 Camden Janik - Illinois (354th pick, Pittsburgh), .973

#22 Nick Mitchell - Indiana (136th pick, Toronto), .970

#25 Josh Caron - Nebraska (121st pick, Seattle), .967

Graduated

#1 Adam Cecere* - Penn State, 1.149 

#5 Jack Frank - Michigan State, 1.089

#8 Stephen Hrustich* - Michigan, 1.055

#11 JT Marr* - Penn State, 1.038

#14 Tony Santa Maria* - Rutgers, 1.022

#16 Raider Tello* - Iowa, 1.009

#17 Connor Milton - Illinois, 1.006

#18 Connor Caskenette* - Purdue, 1.004

#19 Keenan Taylor* - Purdue, .999

#26 Jo Stevens* - Purdue, .962

#32 Sam Hojnar* - Maryland, .923

#33 Joseph Mershon* - Ohio State, .922

#34 Kyle Huckstorf* - Iowa, .921

#36 Mitchel Okuley - Ohio State, .917

#38 Brody Harding - Illinois, .906

#43-t Ike Mezzenga* - Minnesota, .895

#48-t Grant Norris* - Penn State, .886

Ten Things That Caught My Eye

1. A sign of the times, of the top 50 OPSing players last year, 24 had previously played college baseball elsewhere, a percentage that jumps from 48% to 65% for those among the top 20.

2. Though, of the four players on the list that were selected as draft-eligible juniors, all four were drafted from the same Big Ten program they enrolled as a freshman with. I think this is a matter of elite talent arriving on campus, performing early to assert themselves into the lineup and continuing to perform at a high level through their draft-eligible season. 

3. Now, that said, two freshman first basemen that provided their team with high production last year, Luke Gaffney and Collin Priest, the former the Big Ten's Freshman of the Year, did leave their respective team to enter the portal and wind up at Clemson, coached by former Michigan head coach Erik Bakich.

4. Jeff Mercer became the head coach at Indiana with a reputation for developing hitters and producing MLB draft picks. IU saw four players among the conference's top 50 in OPS last year, and all four were IU recruits. In fact, of the nine Hoosier that had at least 150 at-bats, eight were recruited by Indiana, only Jake Stadler a transfer. All four also were, or figure to be, high draft picks. Junior Devin Taylor is the Big Ten's top prospect, a potential first-round selection, on the heels of Nick Mitchell top 150 selection, with sophomore Jasen Oliver having a strong freshman season to show he'll be a draft follow next year.

5. Indiana's in-state rival, Purdue, from where Stadler transferred from, sits on the opposite end of the homegrown spectrum. In additional to Gaffney, six other Boilermakers were among the top 50. Unlike Gaffney, the six others were transfers, three being seniors, the other three all third-year players.

6. Not shown here, but eight players in the Big Ten stole at least 15 bases last year. Among the names shown here, five also make that cut. Kuroda-Grauer (24), Frank (19), Gasser (17), Counsell (16), Mershon (16).

7. In a stretch of players ranked from 21-42, only six were transfers to the program. It feels like that's where you can find some development. Not the elite talent, but also not the one-year transfer with eye-popping numbers, or the fifth-year lifetime college performer. Players who have been in the program for a year or two and know what it takes to compete and perform in the Big Ten.

8. That stretch includes four Illini. I'm not sure how much it can be duplicated, but it looks like Dan Hartleb's title-winning team had the right blend of developed talented and a few transfers to round out the roster. Of the seven Illinois players on the list, two were seniors that were Illini from day one, two were juniors that came through the program, and three were upperclassmen that transferred into the program, each of latter three returning in 2025 for a strong nucleus. 

9. Seniority ruled the day. To the best of my ability to discern rosters, broken down by class, 23 were fourth or fifth-year players, 15 were true juniors, one a red-shirt sophomore, five true sophomores, six true freshmen.

10. As fun of an exercise as this was, when looking at the top teams of 2025, Illinois, Nebraska and Indiana, while Illinois saw seven players among the top 50, Nebraska only had three and Indiana had four. As a team their collective OPS respectively ranked first, fourth and ninth. The only categories where the three were together in a top five were on the pitching side in batting average against and WHIP.