A Deep Dive Inside Texas A&M's Historic Downfall To Start 2025 Season

There's no need to sit and talk about how the horrendous start of the 2025 season has been for the Texas A&M Aggies baseball team.

Surely, the players, coaches, and especially the fans are well aware.

But just how bad have the Maroon and White fallen off after starting the season as favorites galore in both the rankings and the 2025 College World Series projections?

Texas A&M's Jace LaViolette (17) smiles during game three of the NCAA College World Series finals between Tennessee and Texas A&M at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb., on Monday, June 24, 2024. | Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK

For starters, D1Baseball co-owner Kendall Rogers released a tweet Tuesday morning comparing the Aggies' start to the previous 10 preseason No. 1's at this point in the season, right around when conference play begins.

Aggie baseball fans, look away while you still can.

In 2015, the Vanderbilt Commodores were still No. 4, still well suited amongst the best in the country. In 2016, the Florida Gators never moved, still claiming the top spot. 2017 saw the TCU Horned Frogs only drop two spots to third. 2018 saw the Gators this time move down only to No. 2. 2019 saw more of a drop off for the Commodores, falling down to No. 8.

Skipping a season for the COVID-19 outbreak, 2021 saw the Gators still remain in the top 5. In 2022, the Texas Longhorns only fell to No. 2, the 2023 College World Series-winning LSU team that featured Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews was still a runaway No. 1, and last season the Wake Forest Demon Deacons saw quite a decline, down to No. 16 in the rankings.

And then there is the 2025 Texas A&M Aggies, who became the first ever preseason No. 1 team to fall out of the Top 25 rankings in the month of March.

Went through all of our rankings from all 10 years of our existence at @d1baseball. Texas A&M's start is rather historic (not for good reasons). Here's how our Preseason No. 1 has been ranked this week the last 10 years. No No. 1 team has come close to this kind of start.

15:…
— Kendall Rogers (@KendallRogers) March 18, 2025

Now for the big question: why is this happening to the team?

The Aggies were able to retain a lot of their 2024 team that saw the Omaha field, such as Jace LaViolette, Hayden Schott, Gavin Grahovac, and Kaeden Kent, as well as pitchers Ryan Prager and Brad Rudis.

The team overcame Jim Schlossnagle's controversial exit from the team and brought in their hitting coach to take over the head coaching duties, a decision praised by fans and players alike.

And now, one month into the season, many are wondering whether the right choice was made.

Though Gavin Grahovac was one of many Aggies to withdraw his name from the transfer portal and return to College Station, his sophomore season ended much sooner than expected, as a shoulder injury initially suffered last year flared up again and required season-ending surgery, quickly halting his 2025.

With relief pitcher Evan Aschenbeck now in the major leagues, the Aggie bullpen has not fared well so far in his absence, allowing 15 runs in the ninth inning in games where they lost this season.

The team has also struggled offensively, despite their head coach's main focus being hitting, as they rank dead last in the SEC with a team batting average of .264 as hitters such as LaViolette and Schott struggle to put the bat to the ball in some games.

Another big negative for the team has been defense, as the team had 20 fielding errors in just their first 11 games and currently sit at 24 as of now through 20 games.

The team was able to clean up the defensive sloppiness for a decent amount of time earlier this month, moving Texas Tech transfer Gavin Kash from left field to first base and putting some speed in the outfield with Terrence Kiel II in left and Alabama State transfer Jamal George in right, but the three fielding errors Saturday against Alabama easily allowed runners in scoring position, leading to the fateful grand slam that handed the Tide the series.

There is still time for a miraculous turnaround, as conference play is only just now starting, but if Michael Earley's team is going to find themselves back in the running for any kind of championship, that turnaround has to happen right now.

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