Explaining the college baseball redshirt rule, and how it applies to LSU (2024)

The rules for receiving a redshirt in baseball are different from football.

In football, athletes can play in four games while maintaining redshirt status, but in baseball, the opportunity to redshirt disappears as soon as a player gets an at-bat or makes his first appearance on the mound, unless he is injured for the season.

There are 11.7 scholarships that can be divided amongst a maximum of 27 players and there are 35 allowed to be on the roster. Redshirts receiving scholarships count against both the 27-player maximum scholarships and 35-player roster.

LSU coach Jay Johnson said that he has had conversations about redshirting true freshman outfielder Zeb Ruddell. But there are also a few other names who haven't seen time on the field this season yet, including freshmen left-handers Nic Bronzini and DJ Primeaux.

"I've had a conversation with Zeb (Ruddell) about that, that we would use him if we needed to," Johnson said. "But we are trying to redshirt him. With Nic, I haven't had that conversation with because he's improved a lot since the end of inner-squads. And left-handed pitching is always at a premium. DJ Primeaux same thing, so we'll see."

Last year, LSU was without left-hander Javen Coleman who underwent Tommy John surgery. Grant Taylor also recently underwent Tommy John surgery, but it has not been stated that either received medical redshirts.

Coleman threw his first bullpen session on Thursday.

"I don't have a timeline, I wish I did," Johnson said. "I thought we were tracking maybe a little earlier and we got some thought that maybe we weren't as close as we originally thought, but he's really excited about how he felt."