New Tiger shortstop Michael Braswell eager to earn his stripes

LSU Baseball is coming off a historic season in which they won the seventh College World Series in program history. Their roster was completely loaded with MLB talent, headlined by Dylan Crews and Paul Skenes, but there were a lot of quiet contributors who helped lead the way.

One of those contributors was shortstop Jordan Thompson. I know Thompson had his struggles at the plate in the postseason, but there's no denying that Thompson made some insane plays on defense, such as this one against Kentucky in the Super Regional.

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Unfortunately for the Tigers, Thompson has moved on to the MLB where he was drafted in the 15th round to the LA Dodgers. He left a big hole in the middle of the infield with no apparent replacement in the building.

However, the day after LSU beat Kentucky in the Super Regional, Jay Johnson found his next shortstop, Michael Braswell. The South Carolina transfer hit the portal when the Gamecocks missed the NCAA Tournament, and Johnson reached out immediately.

Braswell told Coach Johnson that he wanted to take a visit after Omaha, but Johnson told him to come the very next day, which was the one day they had off between the Super Regional and their trip to Omaha.

Braswell came, and within the next couple days, he announced his commitment to LSU. He talked about his decision to come to LSU and what it meant to get the call from Jay Johnson.

"LSU has a fantastic program and the best fanbase in the country. I rooted for LSU growing up, it definitely was my dream school growing up. I didn't really expect the call, honestly...When I got the call man, I was happy as I don't know what. I tell people this all the time, you can ask my dad, I got the call and I teared up on the phone, I cried. I never thought I'd have the opportunity to play for a program like this."

Michael Braswell

It's always nice to see a player playing at "their dream school," and while for most players it might be their dreams school because they grew up in Louisiana or had parents who attended LSU, Braswell has a different reason for why LSU was his dream school.

"It's kind of childish, but I was playing NCAA Football when I was younger. I know it's childish to say the colors, but when I was five, six, seven years old thinking 'oh man the Tigers look pretty cool,' I was like 'dude I want to go to LSU.' My parents told me it was too far coming out of high school, but yeah, that's why it was my dream school."

Michael Braswell

Braswell was one of, if not the best defensive shortstops in the SEC last season. He basically swallowed up the left side of the infield, and any ground ball hit on that half of the field was an out.

However, Braswell struggled a little bit as a hitter during his time at SC. He batted .255 in 2023 and hit a lot of ground balls. The main thing Coach Johnson wanted him to work on was his hitting development, and Braswell thought this was just the place that can help him improve in that area.

"Hitting development. Coach Johnson told me, 'we think you have the base pieces to be a really good hitter, and with our development, we can take you to the next level.' I put my trust and faith in him to get me better and it's going well so far."

Michael Braswell

When asked to go into more detail on what they've been working on, Braswell said his main focus has been using his lower body more as a hitter. He's trying to turn some of his ground balls into line drives through the gaps, and so far, it seems to be going well.

"It's mainly been mechanical. Just trying to use my lower body in my swing and get more balls more in the air in the gaps. The last two years of my career, I've kind of been a ground ball hitter, a slap guy who hit the ball the other way. I'm just trying to use more of my body to unlock more power and hit the ball in the gaps."

Michael Braswell

Even with his hitting struggles, Johnson saw the defensive ability and willingness to get better and brought him in, knowing that he'd put in the work to improve at the plate.

Braswell talked about what it means to him to have a coach that has so much confidence and trust in him, and this was his response:

"It means the world to me to have the best coach in the country, in my opinion, have that much trust in you and have that much confidence in you. I think a lot of that is because of the work we put in. I've worked tirelessly to make sure these improvements are what they need to be. It started to come to fruition a little bit in the fall, obviously I'm not there yet completely, we still have a long way to go, but I'd definitely say that it's been a great process though, 100%."

Michael Braswell

Believe it or not, Braswell actually closed out some games for the Gamecocks in his two seasons in Columbia. He was asked if pitching is something he could do here, and he said he'll do whatever Jay Johnson wants him to do, but joked that a lot of things would have to go wrong for him to step on the mound as a Tiger.

"I'll do whatever Coach Johnson wants me to do, but right now, I'd say pitching probably isn't in the cards. We have a really deep pitching staff, and a lot of things would need to go wrong for me to pitch, so hopefully that doesn't come to fruition."

Michael Braswell

Braswell is going to be the Tigers starting shortstop in pretty much every game this season. He's not only a special talent on the field, but he's a great guy off the field.

It's not easy to replace a guy like Jordan Thompson, but Michael Braswell should do a fine job taking over the position.

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