Baylor Baseball Opens Fall With New Arms, Familiar Bats and a Chip on Its Shoulder
Baylor baseball has returned to the banks of the Brazos River for fall practices, and fifth-year head coach Mitch Thompson is thrilled to get back into the swing of things and about his team’s potential.
“We’re excited to get out here and really get started,” Thompson said ahead of Monday’s practice. “We've been out here for a little over a month, working the guys into shape, making sure the arms are ready to go, getting in the weight room and doing some work. But to get out here now as a team, I’m very excited. It’s great to get last week's weather out of the way and have some fall weather now. It beats that 105-degree stuff.”
Last season, the Bears posted an overall record of 29-27 and a 14-16 record in conference play, with a mostly young, inexperienced lineup paired with a pitching staff hampered by injuries. At one point, Baylor looked poised to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2019, but a blown lead against rival TCU in mid-April sparked a six-game losing streak.
Thompson’s squad closed the spring strong, winning two of its final three series and giving No. 1 seed Kansas all it could handle in the Big 12 Tournament, losing 8-7 in extras, but that mid-season slump ultimately kept them from serious consideration for an NCAA Tournament bid.
“We've got a little chip on our shoulder, and the guys continued to improve and get better,” Thompson said. “The way we finished the season was good. Going to Salt Lake and fighting and competing as we did, winning that series, and then going and winning a game at the tournament and playing Kansas' pants off at the end. We like what we got, we like where we're heading, and it's exciting to be out here again today.”
This go-around, the Bears return a ton of young talent from last year’s roster that got some early playing experience, but will be without two of their star players: first baseman Tyce Armstrong, who set the single-season home-run record with 24 and has since been drafted by the New York Yankees, and shortstop Travis Sanders, a Second-Team All-Big 12 player who opted to return to college but has since transferred to Tennessee.
“Basically, we've got 20 new guys on the club, so it's a new team,” Thompson said. “But it's an exciting team when you think that you bring back other people that have experience and that have performed well. You start stacking them up and go, ‘Well, JJ [Kennett] and Brytton Clements and Brady [Janusek], and Hunter Snow has had moments, and [Dylan] Perez has got some experience. You start looking around, and there's a good nucleus there of guys who have done well previously. Now we add some pieces to the puzzle, and we'll see how the puzzle turns out.”
Starting with the lineup, Thompson and the rest of the coaching staff prioritized retaining and developing the young talent from last year’s roster, while supplementing with a handful of versatile freshmen that Thompson likes a lot — 1B/OF Graham Charboneau (6-foot-2, 213 pounds) and 1B/OF Wyatt Clewett (6-foot-4, 215 pounds).
A pair of transfers could also be key pieces this spring: Charlotte fifth-year senior 1B/OF Todd Hudson (6-foot-6, 230 pounds) and Central Christian College of Kansas junior 1B/OF Kurt Ippolito (6-foot-3, 187 pounds). Hudson, however, has not redshirted in college and will need to secure eligibility through a temporary injunction or another avenue.
“Probably the thing that I like the most about the position players is just the versatility of the guys,” Thompson said. “They're athletic. They're big. They're physical as a group. Several of these guys can play multiple positions in the infield. They can play infield or outfield. They can play first base or outfield. They give us lots of opportunities to piece this thing together and get the best bats in the lineup that can play, giving us the best chance to be successful in the field.”
Thompson has also been impressed by the sheer size on this year’s roster, adding, “This may be the biggest, most physical team that I've ever coached. I think we have 28 guys over six feet. I think we have 18 that are 6-foot-3 or bigger, and I'm 6-foot-3, so I'm looking up to more guys than I've ever looked up to before, and that's exciting.”
The centerpiece of this season’s lineup will be sophomore outfielder Brady Janusek. Keeping Janusek, the Freshman All-American, was the top story of the offseason, as he’s expected to take a big leap in his second year in Waco. Last spring, he finished third on the team in batting average (.297), runs scored (48), total bases (129), and OPS (.938). Janusek also broke Max Muncy’s program record for freshman home runs with 14 long balls, nine of which came during conference play.
“Brady had a great freshman year, and he's shown back up after a long summer working extremely hard,” Thompson said. “He's a man on a mission. We're going to try and build on that freshman year and see if we can turn it into a big sophomore year.”
Across Thompson’s tenure, the Bears have gotten really solid shortstop play. It started with Freshman All-American Kolby Branch in 2023, followed by two seasons of Tyriq Kemp, a 2025 All-Big 12 First-Teamer and semifinalist for the Brooks Wallace Award, which recognizes the top shortstop in the country. In 2026, Travis Sanders led the Bears in batting average (.369), stolen bases (24) and on-base percentage (.458), while earning Second-Team All-Big 12 honors.
With Sanders off to Knoxville to play for the Vols, Baylor enters the fall without a clear-cut starting shortstop. The three players Thompson mentioned as potential starters are returning junior Brytton Clements, who hit .291 across 42 contests in 2026; sophomore TJ Woodson, who redshirted last year; and incoming freshman Dawson Hinson from Friendswood, Texas.
“We've got three different guys right now that'll be fighting it out over the course of the fall, and I'll be anxious to see it,” Thompson noted. “We've got a couple of veteran guys. Brytton Clements played a lot for us last year. He's capable of playing shortstop, was a high school shortstop, and so Brytton will get a crack at it. TJ Woodson has been here for a year now. He'll get a crack at it, and Dawson Hinson will, too. Dawson's an incoming freshman, a really talented kid.”
While those are the quick hitters within the lineup, let’s switch gears to the mound, where the Bears took the opposite approach and are bringing in 14 newcomers to pair with just five returners. That includes five transfers, five junior college arms and four freshmen.
“It was a huge focus,” Thompson said of adding so many arms this summer. “You're not going to win if you can't win in the middle of the field. You got it in that little circle in the middle, and we were only going to be returning four, five, six guys, and so we needed to bring in a bunch.”
Veteran pitching coach Sean Snedeker worked miracles in his first season in Waco, turning the Bears into one of the conference's better pitching teams in one offseason. In 2026, however, Baylor regressed to below-average, with a 6.11 team ERA and 1.60 WHIP, partly due to injuries and partly due to limited depth. The hope is that, in his third year with the Green and Gold, Snedeker will have more options and talent on the mound to help Baylor return to the top half of the Big 12 in pitching.
“I like what I've seen,” Thompson said of the pitching staff. “I'm anxious to see these guys face each other in the intrasquads and see how guys handle those things. We've got a full fall here to go through it and start creating roles and seeing who can do what. But the talent level has kept rising. I like how hard these guys work. I like their pitchability. Coach Sned and Coach Furlong are doing a great job with them.”
The biggest and flashiest offseason addition for Thompson and Snedeker was Miami transfer Tate DeRias. The junior righty has an electric arm and was in the Hurricanes' starting rotation as a true freshman. As a sophomore, however, DeRias lost command and struggled mightily, appearing in 11 games (five starts) and posting a 12.15 ERA, 2.60 WHIP, and a .353 batting average against over 20 innings.
The Bears beat out North Carolina State, Georgia Tech and Florida State for DeRias out of the transfer portal, so there’s no doubt that other programs believe in his talent. The next step is rebuilding DeRias’ confidence and helping him take another leap, which Thompson is optimistic can happen after DeRias put together a solid summer in the Cape Cod League.
“Really good arm,” Thompson said of DeRias. “It's all to be determined. He’s going to have to show up and get outs. What I consistently tell pitchers is, I want outs. You get outs, you're going to get to pitch more, and that's just how it is. But Tate is an extremely good arm. He's very focused.”
The Bears will continue fall ball and, for the first time in Thompson’s tenure, play outside competition. Baylor is slated to face Sam Houston on the road on Saturday, Oct. 24; Texas State in San Marcos on Friday, Oct. 30; and then Texas State on Sunday, Nov. 1, in Waco.
