baseball wants increased NIL

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Auburn baseball wants increased NIL investment to solve pitching woes

Published: May. 20, 2024, 5:33 a.m.

6–7 minutes

A few moments after a marathon finale ended and Auburn’s vastly disappointing baseball season came to a conclusion, head coach Butch Thompson described it to the media as a learning year.

But that only matters if he makes adjustments from it.

The adjustments will come on the mound, where Auburn experienced an extremely trying year. Auburn finished with a 27-26 overall record and an 8-22 mark in the SEC. Pitching was the main culprit, and Thompson openly admits that.

It finished the year with a 7.57 team ERA in SEC games, the worst number in the league. At one point midway through the SEC season, its team ERA in conference games eclipsed nine. There were very few reliable options for Thompson.

“Just thought once we got to a certain level of depth in our pitching staff, there’s a watermark or a level of acceptability in our league and I think we threw too many innings beneath that from a talent standpoint,” Thompson said.

In his season-ending press conference, Thompson made it quite clear that in a search to find answers, he’s going to look elsewhere. If there is a benefit, so to speak, of Auburn’s early end to the 2024 season, Thompson said it may be the head start he’ll get on recruiting. He said that is his “singular focus” at this point.

Nor did Thompson rule out staff changes when asked Saturday night.

Auburn is on its third pitching coach in as many seasons, hiring Everett Teaford for the job this year out of the Chicago White Sox minor league system where he was a player development coach. Auburn also brought in Scott Foxhall as its director of player development last summer who had previously been Auburn’s pitching coach from 2009-2014 and was fired as Mississippi State’s pitching coach after the 2023 season.

That much is unclear. Thompson made very clear his intentions to use the transfer portal. But he said he needs more financial support to do so. Thompson made his pitch to come to Auburn about playing in the SEC and the exposure that brings. But next season there will be 15 other teams to make that same pitch. He, too, is selling opportunity for a large role, trying to find someone he can rely on.

So Thompson said it’s going to take a larger NIL investment than he’s already had.

Implicit in his message? Auburn isn’t competing at the same level financially as teams like LSU.

“NIL, that space, whether I hit the mark or fell short on that, of the estimation there,” Thompson said. “Trying to find a commitment there that matches our peers in our league. We finished fifth in this league the last two years.”

Thompson implied during the 2024 season that junior Chase Allsup — Auburn’s original Friday night starter who vastly improved over the final weeks of the season — could be headed to the MLB Draft this summer. Redshirt junior Joseph Gonzalez, who led Auburn’s pitching staff to the College World Series in 2022, went through Senior Night festivities against Alabama. He has not maintained consistent health and when he has pitched, he has not regained his 2022 form. It’s not clear whether he’ll be back. If he is, does he even factor into Auburn’s rotation after being removed from it during this season?

“I thought Allsup and Gonzalez, we hung our hat on that and that didn’t exactly materialize for us,” Thompson said. “That was a one and two in I think most clubs that are doing good had that one and two for the whole year. That was the biggest challenge for us this year.”

Auburn frequently changed its weekend starters frequently as no one emerged as a truly reliable, consistent option. Auburn’s pitching was the biggest culprit in a putrid start to SEC play and at one point midway through the season had a team ERA above nine against conference foes.

It was bad. Really bad. And Thompson knew there wasn’t much he could do for a wholesale fix this season.

Auburn only had one pitcher who started more than five games this season with an ERA below five (Tanner Bauman). Auburn found a few good bullpen pieces in juniors John Armstrong and Parker Carlson. True freshman Griffin Graves was a top 100 recruit but only pitched 5.1 innings this year. Thompson is excited about the future of freshman Cam Tilly, who made 14 appearances in 2024.

Auburn has signees Connor Gatwood and Christian Chatterton, Alabama native pitchers rated as top 50 high school players the 2024 class. Auburn’s 2024 class is rated as a top five group by Perfect Game and of the 17-man group, 12 are listed as pitchers.

But then it’s a reprise of Thompson’s NIL questions. Can he get Gatwood and Chatterton, who may receive MLB Draft consideration, to campus? Can he lure top pitching talent out of the portal that will take top dollar?

Certainly, it’s too early to say which pitchers will be in the transfer portal. But Auburn wants to compete for the biggest names involved. And of course, that means Auburn will not be the only team in the running. For now, Thompson doesn’t seem convinced Auburn is on the same financial playing field as the SEC’s top teams to lure those players here, despite Auburn maybe having the biggest need.

“Maybe that’s an advantage of being able to do the portal and being aggressive,” Thompson said. “We’ll be out trying to get people interested in supporting and giving at a higher rate than what we presented with this team. We’ll be out trying to look and find some guys that want real opportunity in the best amateur baseball on Earth.”

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com

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