Stanford baseball’s 2024 season ended in Scottsdale, Arizona as they fell to the Arizona Wildcats in the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament by a final score of 6-3. Excluding the pandemic season, the Cardinal failed to make the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016, finishing the season with a 22-33 overall record and an 11-19 record in the Pac-12.
Obviously, the season did not go the way the Cardinal wanted it to. They are a program with high standards and an expectation to not only make the NCAA tournament but make deep runs and make it to the College World Series, which they did three seasons in a row coming into this season.
As far as what went wrong for the Cardinal, star outfielder Braden Montgomery transferring to Texas A&M really hurt. He was the most powerful bat in the lineup last season and is a projected first round pick in this year’s MLB draft. Had they had him back for his junior season, that would have given them another powerful bat alongside sophomore catcher Malcolm Moore, who is also projected to be a first round pick in this year’s draft. When you lose a bat like Montgomery’s unexpectedly, that really hurts. There’s really no way to sugar coat it.
In addition to losing to Montgomery, Stanford had nine players get selected in the MLB draft last year. While getting that kind of exposure in the draft is great for the program overall, it certainly hurt this year’s team to lose so many key players. It would have been nice had Drew Bowser returned after being picked in the 20th round to boost his draft stock, but turning away a shot at the major leagues is always tough. If you aren’t certain you’ll be picked much higher if you return, in can be very tempting to just start your pro career right away and that’s what he did.
As for the pitching, this was a real issue for Stanford. Sophomore righty Matt Scott didn’t have the kind of season he was hoping to have, finishing with a 4-10 record and a 5.96 ERA. He was the Friday night starter and never was able to really settle in. While the offense behind him was shaky, his ERA speaks for itself. Sophomore righty Nick Dugan was even worse, typically pitching on Sundays as the third starter of the weekend. He finished with a 3-4 record and a 6.49 ERA.
While there were a lot of struggles for Stanford, there were some bright spots. Malcolm Moore hit 16 home runs for 36 RBIs to go along with a .255 batting average, a .553 slugging percentage, and a .414 on base percentage. While he didn’t produce as much as he would have liked, those are still very solid numbers. Good enough for him to be a projected first round pick as mentioned above. And then graduate student infielder Owen Cobb batted .320 to go along with seven home runs, 33 RBIs, a .500 slugging percentage, and a .363 on base percentage. He too had a strong season as did sophomore outfielder Cort MacDonald, whose .325 batting average led the team.
Moore and Cobb are both going to be gone next season, so Stanford is going to have to look for others to step up, but fortunately, they have some guys who appear capable of doing so. Freshman outfielder Brady Reynolds showed some promise this year as did sophomore outfielder Ethan Hott. Both guys should be even better next year. And then there are a lot of talented pitchers who got thrown into the fire as freshmen, most notably lefty Christian Lim, who had a 4-6 record as a starter to go along with a 4.33 ERA. He was the top starting pitcher on the entire team.
As for incoming players, Japanese phenom Rintaro Sasaki is the headliner, hitting 140 home runs in his high school career. He is expected to bring a powerful bat to the Cardinal lineup and give them instant offense. He is already enrolled at Stanford and was practicing with the team this year, so he’ll be coming in having already had some familiarity with the team. He essentially redshirted. I’ve also heard really good things about incoming freshman short stop Charlie Bates, who played his high school ball across the street at Palo Alto High School. So, there are some returning/incoming players who will have a chance to make a real impact next year and turn the fortunes of the team around.
Regarding other players who might get drafted, you just never know what an MLB team is going to do when you get into those later rounds. Junior infielder Trevor Haskins and sophomore infielder Jimmy Nati are two guys who could possibly get selected. Nati much more likely as he batted .308 for eight home runs and a team-high 45 RBIs while Haskins batted .278 for six home runs and 27 RBIs. Like Malcolm Moore, Nati is a sophomore who will be 21 years of age come the MLB draft, which will make him eligible.
Speaking more on departures, Stanford will not have right-handed pitcher Tommy O’Rourke back next season. After missing two straight seasons due to injury, he has grad-transferred to Vanderbilt. That’s one thing I did want to quickly mention.
When looking at this all holistically, Stanford obviously should be disappointed that this season went the way it did, but there is reason for them to have hope in the future. Head coach David Esquer I thought did a really good job of understanding that this season was going to be a growth year for the team and that it was all about getting guys experience for next year.
“The improvement is important, but the consistency is gonna be the next step,” Esquer said earlier this season. “So, having games like this, it’s big and you’re capable of doing it, but consistently coming out and playing at this level of baseball is difficult to do and that’s gonna be the next hurdle for us.”
If things go the way that Stanford hopes and Sasaki is everything he’s expected to be, we should see the Cardinal back in the NCAA tournament next year and making some noise in their first season in the ACC. This program has a lot of pride and tradition. I expect that to motivate them. It’s just about them finding that belief and also consistency that is needed to be great.
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