David Esquer Announces Stanford's Friday Night Starter, Planned Pitchers for 2026

We now know two of the three members of Stanford's starting rotation

Mar 1, 2025; Stanford, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal manager David Esquer walks to the dugout during the fifth inning against the Xavier Musketeers at Sunken Diamond. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images | Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

As college baseball season rapidly approaches, the Stanford Cardinal are preparing for what they hope will be a a bounce back season, with the goal of getting back to the NCAA Tournament.

Earlier this week, Stanford Head Coach David Esquer appeared on the Cardinal Chronicles, a Stanford sports podcast run by both Lucca Mazzie and Dylan Grausz of Stanford on SI.

On the podcast, Esquer was asked about potential starters going into next season, and he expressed his plans for who will be on the mound for day one.

“Nick Dugan will start off as our Friday night guy, and Aidan Keenan will go on Saturday. We are yet to figure out Sunday. Guys like Sam Garewal may get that chance. Trevor Moore may get that chance. Brock Ketelsen may get a chance to start behind him. Parker Warner profiles better as a starter than a reliever, but we got to get them there so they can earn that right to start the game for us.”

In other words, it will be Nick Dugan on Friday, Aidan Keenan on Saturday, and it is still undecided who will be on the bump when Sunday rolls around, as the coaching staff is still figuring out how to put their best starting five forward.

In 2025, Stanford’s pitching was far from perfect. While the Cardinal had tons of talent in Matt Scott, Joey Volchko, and Christian Lim, they often lost games down the stretch due to pitching struggles.

Going off of this information, it's clear that Stanford is planning to go with three completely new names as starting pitchers this year.

On Cardinal Chronicles, Mazzie asked Esquer about issues regarding the pitching, and his plans for 2025 to end that with new guys coming in.

“Well we are going to need them. And I think we have 18 or 19 arms that can reach home plate and we are going to use them all. They are all going to get a chance and we will see who can help us and who can rise to the challenge of game competition.”

The big question here seems to be which pitchers that the Cardinal have will be able to acclimate to the pressure of pitching on a college mound.

We are going to project the Sunday starter to be Parker Warner. While he struggled last season, holding an 8.53 ERA in 12 2/3 innings, the potential he showed was clear, and his experience starting could provide him a slight leg up in the competition. However, it looks like there will be a few different guys getting a chance to earn the right to begin the year on the mound in the starting rotation.

It’s clear that Esquer and the coaching staff is beginning to solidify their plans for the upcoming season, and they are confident that the pitching will take a step forward over the output they've received in previous seasons.