2026 LSU Baseball Position Preview: Third Base

What do you want out of your third basemen?

Do you want someone who swings a big stick with some iffy defense? Or do you want a golden glove with a bat that—to put it mildly—struggles? Jay Johnson’s won two national titles on either side of that spectrum.

In 2023 Johnson Tanked his way to a national championship with Tommy White; two summers later Michael Braswell may have been a sub .200 hitter, but you’d take that every time with the way he defended his position. This go round, LSU’s new third baseman appears to be more in the Tommy White camp than the Braswell.

*At Oregon State

Trent Caraway didn’t travel nearly 2,500 miles to sit on the bench and the Oregon State transfer is a lock to be the Tigers’ starting third basemen in 2026. Caraway comes to Baton Rouge as a pseudo-Tommy White, which is to say a really capable bat but you might be holding your breath when he’s manning the hot corner.

“Caraway =White” isn’t a perfect analogy. Sure White brought an eye-popping 27 homers with him when he transferred to LSU, but he was also a .362 hitter as a freshman at NC State with only 50 strikeouts in 235 at bats (about a 21% K Rate). Caraway, however, was a .267 hitter with just 12 homers and struck out about 26 percent of the time (66 Ks in 261 at bats) as a sophomore. White’s one of the best, most complete collegiate hitters of the 21st century, and Caraway’s not. He’s a very good hitter, sure, but it’s not fair to expect a 20 homer/70+ RBI type of season.

LSU doesn’t need Caraway to be Tommy White though. This is a lineup that I expect will be able to hit 1-9, and Caraway ought to be able to give the Tigers some power in the middle of the lineup. I’m expecting about 12-15 home runs and for Caraway to flirt with 50 RBI this season somewhere in the middle of LSU’s lineup.

What I’m worried about, however, is the defense. Caraway committed 12 errors last season and fielded .899 at Oregon State. That’s not even in the same universe as Michael Braswell’s three errors and .968 fielding percentage. To be fair, Tommy White wasn’t an All-World defender coming over from NC State and while his 2023 season was iffy (13 errors, .859 fielding percentage) he took massive strides in ‘24 (just three errors and raised his fielding percentage by nearly 120 points to .971). I’m expecting (hoping?) for a similar type of defensive leap by Caraway.

I’m curious to see how much, if at all, John Pearson’s role expands heading into his sophomore season. The younger brother of Josh, John Pearson has dropped about 25 pounds and had a pretty nice showing over the summer in the Northwoods League. Pearson hit .279 over the summer in 23 games and played third base in 19 of them.

Pearson only got to dip his toe slightly into the water that is SEC pitching. Pearson got 21 at bats for the entire year, but showed he’s got power as three of his five hits went for extra bases (a double and two home runs). How many more at bats does he get heading into his second year? We won’t know until we get there.

I also can’t help but wonder what kind of legacy Pearson continues to write for himself as an LSU Tiger. Will he end up becoming his own man or is he just going to be “Josh’s younger brother”? It’s more likely we’ll get to know that in earnest in 2027 since LSU could very likely lose its entire infield at the end of this season. Maybe this time next year John is pushing for a starting first or third base job, but in the here and now, the younger Pearson is probably a big bat that Jay Johnson will call upon in a gotta have it moment and hopefully he has some signature moments of his own.