MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In theory, the NCAA’s decision to allow spring athletes to earn an extra year of eligibility after they lost this season due to the COVID-19 pandemic was an easy one, but WVU baseball coach Randy Mazey knows there are major hurdles to overcome, especially in college baseball.
Without this situation, baseball coaches already have a difficult time predicting what their rosters will look like after the season due to the MLB draft — picking current players who decide to go pro, as well as selecting incoming freshman who decide a pro career is the best option.
Now, without knowing the scholarship distribution WVU will decide on, Mazey doesn’t have any clue what his roster will look like in 2021.
“It presents a lot of challenges, and some of the challenges are people are looking at this year. Well, this year may not be the issue,” he said. “We had about 12-14 freshmen on the team this year, and then we have 12-14 incoming freshmen next year. If this year’s freshmen are freshmen again, then we’ll have a class next year of over 25 people. That’s fine if you don’t have a roster limit, but if they say there isn’t a roster limit for one year and they’re going back to the 35-man limit next year, then we’ll have 25-30 sophomores on a 35-man roster and that can’t work.”
Compared to other spring sports at WVU, specifically with no softball program, baseball is unique in its scholarship and roster numbers. While Mazey’s concerns remain valid, he said the NCAA will look at baseball as a “unique entity” and will try and figure out a way to solve a potential log-jam with roster numbers over the next three-four years.
With over 30 years in college baseball, Mazey has known nothing but cutting and slashing to baseball programs when it comes to scholarships, roster sizes, games played and overall budgets, but despite the coronavirus shutdown wiping out the 2020 season, it may cause the NCAA to take a greater look at how baseball is handled.
“Every answer that we’ve ever tried to get has been, ‘No,’ ” Mazey said. “Hopefully one day, people will get together and logic will prevail.”
The MLB draft is still slated for June, so Mazey isn’t sure how his current roster will be affected, especially with underclassmen and incoming freshmen. But the Mountaineers, who started 11-5 before the season was wiped out, have three seniors in infielder Kevin Brophy, pitcher Dillon Meadows and pitcher/outfielder Braden Zarbnisky.
Zarbnisky received an extra year of eligibility after his 2019 was wiped out because of an injury, and now another try at a senior campaign is gone.
Mazey isn’t sure what those three seniors want to do, but Zarbnisky tweeted March 30, “Year 4 pt. 3…?”
A few juniors, including pitcher Jackson Wolf, infielder Tyler Doanes and catcher Paul McIntosh also had a chance to be drafted had a college season been played. Now, there’s a possibility these players will be back when it was expected to be gone in some fashion in 2021.
“That creates a little bit of a roster-management issue, but at the same time, you’ve got five or six really good players back that you hadn’t counted on,” Mazey said. “We’ll deal with it. Baseball coaches always do and we’ll find a way to do it again.”
