After a breakout season for Clemson, Max Wagner learned this week that he’s officially up for one of college baseball’s highest individual honors.
Wagner on Thursday was named one of five finalists for the Dick Howser Trophy, which annually goes to the sport’s national player of the year. Georgia Tech’s Kevin Parada, Tennessee’s Trey Lipscomb, Oregon State’s Cooper Hjerpe and Texas’ Ivan Melendez are also in the running for the award, the winner of which will be announced June 17.
Wagner is vying to become the fourth Clemson player to receive the prestigious honor (Kris Benson in 1996, Khalil Greene in 2022 and Seth Beer in 2016) thanks to a sophomore season that stacks up among the best in program history.
He led the Tigers in batting average (.369), home runs (27), RBIs (76), slugging percentage (.852) and on-base percentage (.496). His home run total matched Greene’s in 2002 for the program’s single-season record, but Wagner displayed more than just power at the plate. He also led the team in walks (45) – a rarity for a middle-of-the-order hitter – contributing to an on-base percentage that ranked third in the ACC and 18th among all Division I players.
So how does Wagner’s candidacy stack up against the award’s other finalists? Not every comparison is of the apples-to-apples variety, but Wagner faces some stiff competition nevertheless.
Hjerpe is the lone pitcher among the group, giving voters something other than offense and defense to consider. The Beavers’ sophomore left-hander has been as good as anyone in the country on the bump, posting a 2.40 earned run average over 97 ⅔ innings. Hjerpe, also a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award, is limiting opposing batters to just a .182 average in large part because he’s recorded 155 strikeouts so far, or 14.2 per nine innings, which is tops in the country.
As for how Wagner measures up to the other position players, starting the comparison with Parada makes sense given they competed in the same conference. A sophomore catcher for Georgia Tech, Parada finished the season as the ACC’s RBI leader (88) and finished third with 93 hits, 18 more than Wagner.
But Wagner had a higher average and one more home run than Parada en route to ACC Player of the Year honors. In fact, Wagner’s league-leading slugging percentage was nearly a full point higher than Virginia’s Jake Gelof (.764), who finished second in that category.
Melendez could be the player everyone is chasing in this race with the kind of offensive season college baseball hasn’t seen in nearly a decade. Texas’ junior first baseman leads the nation in home runs (30), RBIs (90) and slugging percentage (.895) while maintaining the 10th-highest batting average (.404) in the country. He’s the first player in the sport to hit 30 home runs in a season since Kris Bryant pulled off the feat for the University of San Diego in 2013.
Meanwhile, Lipscomb has put together one of the best offensive seasons in the SEC, which matched the most NCAA Tournament teams produced by any conference with nine. Wagner has Lipscomb beat in average (.363), home runs (21), slugging percentage (.726) and on-base percentage (.438), but Lipscomb’s slugging percentage still ranks second in the SEC. The Volunteers’ senior third baseman also leads the league in RBIs (80).
Unlike Melendez, Wagner and Lipscomb play one of the most demanding defensive positions in the sport and have done it nearly to a draw this season. Lipscomb has committed 10 errors at the hot corner while Wagner committed 12 for a .922 fielding percentage. Parada had four errors behind the dish for the Yellow Jackets and caught 12 of 42 baserunners trying to steal.
Of course, deciding awards like this isn’t always as simple as comparing statistics.
Wagner is the only finalist that didn’t participate in the NCAA Tournament after Clemson went 35-23 overall with just a 13-18 record against ACC foes, which could be viewed as a positive or a negative in the eyes of voters. Wagner needed less games to put up the numbers that he did, but, similar to college football’s Heisman Trophy, the best players on the most successful teams tend to have a leg up on the competition. Melendez, Lipscomb and Hjerpe are still playing with their respective teams set to compete in super regionals this weekend.
But Wagner’s body of work is as impressive as any of them. Now it’s up to the voters to determine if it’s good enough for him to add to his collection of awards this season.
