Tag: Jason Kelly

LSU baseball director of operations heads west to become an assistant coach

LSU has now seen three members of its coaching staff depart this offseason.

LSU’s offseason staff turnover continued on Thursday as director of baseball operations [autotag]Tyler Nordgren[/autotag] announced that he will be leaving to take an assistant coaching position at California Baptist.

Nordgren was with coach [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] at Arizona as the director of operations, and he left the Wildcats to take the same role in Baton Rouge. Now, he’s headed back home to California.

His coaching career started in 2018 at James Madison High School in San Diego. Following the 2019 season, he left James Madison to become an assistant coach at nearby Division II Point Loma Nazarene University, where he starred as a third baseman in college.

After one season at Point Loma, he joined Johnson in Arizona. Nordgren is the third assistant coach to depart LSU this year, following pitching coach [autotag]Jason Kelly[/autotag] and recruiting coordinator [autotag]Dan Fitzgerald[/autotag], who left to become head coaches at Washington and Kansas, respectively.

LSU is hard at work filling vacancies not only on the field but also on the coaching staff.

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LSU hires Minnesota Twins pitching coach Wes Johnson

Johnson spent the last four seasons at the MLB level after stints as the pitching coach at Mississippi State and Arkansas.

LSU coach [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] has made a massive addition to his staff on Sunday night as he is set to hire Minnesota Twins pitching coach [autotag]Wes Johnson[/autotag] to fill the same role in Baton Rouge. D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers first reported the news.

Johnson replaces [autotag]Jason Kelly[/autotag], who was hired as the head coach at Washington last week. He spent the last four seasons with the Twins after a college coaching career that included SEC stops at Mississippi State and Arkansas. He also served as the pitching coach at Dallas Baptist and Central Arkansas.

Johnson will join LSU immediately and not finish out the 2022 MLB season with Minnesota, who currently sits in first place in the AL Central.

Obviously, it goes without saying that stealing a pitching coach from the major league level — especially in the midst of a potential playoff season — is a huge win for LSU.

This team will likely enter Year 2 of the Johnson era with high expectations after adding several high-profile transfers and the top 2022 recruiting class in the country.

UPDATE: LSU officially announced the hire on Monday with this statement from head coach Jay Johnson.

“I couldn’t be more excited to announce Wes Johnson as our pitching coach at LSU. We have hired, in my opinion, the best pitching coach in the country at any level. The success he has had at the highest level of baseball speaks to Wes’ ability to communicate, teach, develop and motivate. Our current and future pitchers have a coach in Wes that will get the best out of them and help them develop into one of the best pitching staffs in college baseball on an annual basis.

“I believe Wes will help us recruit and develop a large number of future Major League pitchers at LSU and form them into a dominant staff for years to come. This is a huge day for LSU Baseball.”

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