LSU Baseball: Jaden Hill has the stuff to be special

LSU baseball’s Jaden Hill is back on the mound after an injury riddled 2019 campaign.

LSU baseball pitcher Jaden Hill has the chance to be a special player — not just in Baton Rouge, but in MLB as well.

Hill, who missed the majority of his freshman season due to injury, is back on the mound this season and he already looks like a force.

The Arkansas native touched 98 mph on the radar gun in his return to the mound against Indiana earlier this month. Against Eastern Kentucky, he displayed a slider that looked completely unhittable.

LSU baseball coach Paul Mainieri said last week that he hopes to keep Hill in the bullpen this season. But he made sure to add that he sees Hill being LSU’s “Friday night starter” in 2021.

Hill has too much potential to stay in the Tigers’ bullpen. But the hope is obviously that LSU’s rotation performs well and stays healthy, in order to allow Hill to ease his way back to a starter’s workload.

If Hill, who was rated as a three-star quarterback in the 2018 recruiting class, continues to pick up where he left off in 2019, he’ll likely be a high draft pick in the 2021 MLB Draft.

But that’s still over a year away. The Tigers need to enjoy Hill while he’s still in Baton Rouge.

You can’t teach a slider as nasty as Hill’s. He absolutely has the potential to end up in a MLB starting rotation in the not so distant future.