Louisiana-born grad transfer McManus leads LSU into SEC series at Alabama
It remains to be seen if LSU catcher Tyler McManus gets a shot at professional baseball.
But the former Slidell High standout is certainly prepared for the transitory nature and unpredictability of playing for pay.
In his five-year, 180-game college career, he played two years each for Delgado Community College in New Orleans and Samford University in Birmingham before joining LSU this season as a graduate transfer.
Changing surroundings doesn’t seem like a big deal for most players. But for a catcher having to learn a completely new staff of pitchers – not just how they throw but also their personalities and temperaments – it's a chore.
“The position takes a lot of focus,” said McManus, who enters tonight’s SEC series opener at Alabama batting .391 in his last seven games (raising his average to .266) while also handling Tigers head coach Jay Johnson’s revolving door of pitching changes. “I think it's important to know each guy that throws, know where they miss, where they're good, what you can do to help put them in rhythm, and eliminate what takes them out of a rhythm.
“Just getting to know the guys in the locker room is the most important thing. Because when they're comfortable, they'll tell you what they're comfortable with and what they're not comfortable with when they're on the mound. Learning and understanding that, trying to help them and be a servant to whatever they need to be successful is the kind of approach I take.”
When Johnson assessed LSU’s roster last June after replacing the retired Paul Mainieri – “It was really intense, I did not leave the building for like the first two to three weeks,” Johnson said – he determined finding an impact catcher to add to the returning rotation of Alex Milazzo and Hayden Travinski was a priority.
“Catchers are like gold,” Johnson said. “They're not falling out of the sky into the transfer portal.”
It’s why Johnson was more than happy to receive a call from Samford’s Casey Dunn, who was in the process of moving across town to become Alabama-Birmingham’s new head coach.
McManus, who has been a catcher since he was nine years old, had a fifth year of eligibility remaining from the NCAA because of the COVID-shortened 2020 season. He was coming off a senior campaign last year in which he led Samford in batting (.346) and RBI (53) as his team advanced to the Mississippi State Regional where it was eliminated after two straight losses.
It didn't take long for McManus to enter the transfer portal. He asked Dunn to call Johnson.
“Hey, there's a kid from Louisiana, he just went in the portal. . .not sure what your needs are, but he asked me to reach out to you,” Dunn said to Johnson.
Johnson immediately tapped into Synergy Sports, an analytics and video service that dissects and analyzes every pitch, player, plate appearance, game situation and outcome.
“I watched all his (McManus) at-bats, ran some numbers and he hit like. 330 against SEC teams last year,” Johnson said. “Knowing we had some need at that position, we brought him over here quickly. Spent one morning with him and he committed that very day. I’m happy that he did because he's an impactful player in a position of need and is a good person to have in the program.”
For McManus, it really was LSU or bust when he put his name in the transfer portal.
“Knowing I only had one year left to play in front of my parents where they can make an even a midweek game, I knew I really wanted to come back home,” said McManus, whose parents Jerry and Kathie McManus both graduated from the LSU School of Nursing. “There's one place in mind and I grew up in Louisiana so I knew I loved LSU. When the opportunity came about, there's no doubt in my mind it's where I wanted to be.”
Though McManus posted a career .319 batting average and 70 RBI at Slidell, he drew virtually no attention from college recruiters. In fact, he wasn't even on the radar of veteran Delgado coach Joe Scheuermann until Delgado interim chancellor Debbie Lea called him.
“When your chancellor calls, you listen and she told me that there was this catcher at Slidell I might want to look at,” Scheuermann said. “It turned out Slidell used a couple of catchers that season. When I went to see McManus play, he wasn’t catching. I only saw him hit.
“But he knocked the stew out of the ball. Junior college is about scoring runs, so I signed without ever seeing him catch.”
In McManus’ second Delgado season in 2019, he started all 50 games. Scheuermann put so much trust in him that he was the first catcher that Scheuermann ever allowed to call almost all the pitches.
“He’s very intelligent and he has a high baseball I.Q.,” Scheuermann said of McManus. “And he’s a grinder. Even if he has a slow start, he'll figure it out.”
That has been the case this season. After he was a head-turner in LSU's fall practice last September and October, he batted just .115 in 13 non-conference games before the start of SEC play.
Yet, he was 4 for 9 with two homers and four RBI and scored three runs in the Tigers’ opening three-game league series vs. Texas A&M. In the 15 SEC games McManus has started (Travinski has started the other six league contests since Milazzo is sidelined with a leg injury), he’s hit .302 with four homers, nine RBI and 13 runs scored.
Two weekends ago against Missouri, McManus had a game-tying RBI single and a two-run double that put LSU ahead for good in an 8-6 game three victory that gave the Tigers their only home SEC series sweep this season.
“He was a little physically beat up before the start of the season,” Johnson said of McManus. “He’s been great the last couple of weeks. I have a lot of faith in him when he's up there (at bat). He's so reliable in terms of his approach, his mindset and his maturity.”
McManus hasn’t been rattled though Johnson has averaged using 4.6 pitchers per game including six or more in 15 games. He’s had just five passed balls this season, two in SEC play.
And it’s also why he has enjoyed learning a new group of pitchers, from steady Friday night starter Ma’Khail Hilliard (“Some guys go out there and throw, but Ma’Khail knows how to pitch,” McManus said), flame-throwing Eric Reyzelman (“I always get nervous when I'm catching him because of my laces have been known to pop, so I have a backup mitt ready,” McManus said) and 6-10 reliever Paul Gervase (“He throws from a funky arm angle, his pitch moves four different directions depending on his release,” McManus said).
McManus is also happy to be part of the Tigers’ tightly knit trio of catchers along with Milazzo and Travinski.
“Having a staff of catchers is not a bad thing at all,” he said. “It’s a position that will wear and tear on your body. At the start of fall practice, we didn't really know each other. But we were already trying to help each other improve the catching position to put the best product out there on the field.
“Because at the end of the day, we're trying to win baseball games however we can do that, whoever's doing that, that's what we want to do.”
No. 14 LSU (30-14, 12-9 SEC) at Alabama (25-20, 9-12 SEC)
Game 1 Tonight, 6 p.m.
Game 2 Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Game 3 Sunday, 1 p.m.
TV: All three games will be streamed live on SEC Network + while Saturday’s game will be televised live on the SEC Network
RADIO: LSU Sports Radio Network affiliate, live audio at www.LSUsports.net/live and live stats at www.LSUstats.com
SEC RACE: LSU is in a four-way tie for third place in the overall league standings with Auburn, Texas A&M and Georgia. The Tigers' remaining regular season SEC series are home vs. Ole Miss and at Vanderbilt.
RANKINGS
LSU: No. 14 NCAA RPI, No. 19 USA Today, No. 20 D1 Baseball
ALABAMA: Unranked
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
LSU in SEC stats
Batting: Average (No. 2, .292), slugging percentage (No. 2, .520), on-base percentage (No. 2, .406), runs scored (No. 2, 348), RBI (No. 2, 327), doubles (No. 2, 89), home runs (No. 4, 79), total bases (No. 2, 780) and hit-by-pitch (No. 1, 86).
Pitching: ERA (No. 4, 3.68), opponent batting average (No. 4, .229), fewest runs allowed (No. 4, 202), fewest earned runs allowed (No. 4, 160), fewest hits allowed (No. 4, 340) and fewest walks allowed (No. 4, 152).
LSU LEADERS
Sophomore third baseman Jacob Berry is batting a team-high .377 this season (2nd in the SEC). He also leads the team in hits (66), homers (15) and RBI (45).
Senior right-hander Ma’Khail Hilliard, LSU’s Friday night starter, is 5-0 with a 3.57 ERA and 50 strikeouts in 53 innings. He is 12-0 in his last 12 career decisions.
ALABAMA LEADERS
The Crimson Tide are hitting .281 (No. 9 in the SEC) with 79 doubles, seven triples and 50 homers. The Alabama pitching staff has a 4.27 ERA (No. 5 in the SEC) with 413 strikeouts in 396.1 innings
Alabama is led by infielder Drew Williamson, who has seven homers and a team-high 37 RBI, infielder Zane Denton (12 doubles, 11 homers, 36 RBI) and outfielder Andrew Pinckney (a team-best .314 batting average, 10 doubles, three triples, five homers and 21 RBI.
Right-hander Garrett McMillan, the Tide’s Friday night starting pitcher, is No. 9 in the SEC in opponent batting average (.215) and No. 10 in the league in strikeouts (65).