(Photo: Sun Devil Athletics)
Arizona State baseball’s season doesn’t kick off until February 13, but that doesn’t mean that head coach Willie Bloomquist is just watching time tick by.
His team, like every other program in the nation, is working hard to improve on the field with practices and scrimmages. His eyes, though, are fixated beyond the fall and beyond even the spring season. Bloomquist wants to create a standard of postseason excellence.
Year after year, he’s inched closer and closer to the playoffs before finally reaching the Los Angeles regional this past season. Still, it wasn’t what he wanted. His team got eliminated early, and with his Friday and Saturday starters, key bullpen pieces and the vast majority of his lineup leaving him for pro ball, it was back to the drawing board.
Bloomquist’s challenges go beyond organizing practices. He had to find 27 newcomers who share and believe in his vision in an ever-changing collegiate baseball landscape, and now he has to foster the right culture between them off the diamond.
If his group can gel together and overcome a purposely strong regular season, he and his team could be setting themselves up for long-term success.
“We just continue to try to go after the right type of kids,” Bloomquist said Monday, during his first media availability of the preseason. “Bring them here, create a culture where they want to be here and want to continue getting better. As long as the trajectory of the program keeps going in the direction we’re in, I’m hoping the later runs in the postseason certainly start coming our way.”
It’ll take time for all the newcomers, as well as the 16 returners, to get to know everything about each other and settle into roles. Position battles are underway and inter-team competitions are ongoing, but in the clubhouse and the weight room, everyone is aligned and bought in.
“There seems to be a lot more accountability this year with these guys,” Bloomquist said. “The effort level has been through the roof, and there’s a bunch of guys, the ones that we did bring in are adapting very quickly, and they’re the right type of kids that want to come in. They’re here for the right reasons.”
When Bloomquist joined the head coaching game in 2022, the collegiate world was very different from what it is now. It was the first year of the transfer portal as we know it, and changes since then have only gotten wilder with Name, Image, and Likeness, conference realignment, revenue sharing and an increase in scholarship spots to 34, which athletic director Graham Rossini let Bloomquist take full advantage of.
The world is changing, but it’s arguably for the better for ASU. Taking full advantage of the resources at Bloomquist’s disposal was a major reason he was able to assemble this squad and amass the 64Analytics No. 11 transfer portal class in the country.
“As we’re positioned now with the full allotment of scholarships, it’s been extremely helpful,” Bloomquist said. “It gets us into a lot of those conversations that we couldn’t get into before, whether or not that ultimately is getting us to land some of these guys, I think it definitely has an effect, especially in the transfer portal. And then, of course, having the allotment of (revenue) share and stuff like that certainly helps out as well.
“Are we there yet against some of the big boys? From that standpoint, it’s always going to be an uphill battle, but we are definitely in a much better position than we have been the past few years.”
Winning and losing in the transfer portal is one thing, but the Sun Devils will have a chance to prove themselves against some of those so-called “big boys” on the field, early in the season.
ASU has five games against four SEC opponents within the first month of the season. It starts off with two midweek games at Oklahoma before traveling south to Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, for the Amegy Bank College Baseball Series, where it’ll play Mississippi State, Tennessee and Texas A&M.
Later in the season, on May 5, the Sun Devils will face Missouri, a fifth SEC opponent, on the road.
“We’re going to be tested early and often,” Bloomquist said. “We got our work cut out for sure, but strength of schedule won’t be an issue.”
Bloomquist enters the challenging campaign in the last year of his first contract with the school. By the standards of some fans and pundits, Bloomquist’s results in that time have been mediocre. He’s only made the postseason once, and while he’s produced more wins year over year, it’s been by small margins.
Still, Bloomquist is improving. He hasn’t trended in the wrong direction since he took the reins and is coming off the program’s most successful season since 2019. He hasn’t done anything to not at least get a shot with a second contract. At least, that’s seemingly what Rossini believes.
When asked about his contract situation heading into the year, Bloomquist debated answers before landing on: “Talk to Graham, because there’s something that should be happening soon.”
No matter what happens with Bloomquist’s next contract, the 2025 season will be a critical one for the direction of the program. Will Bloomquist be able to rally a – mostly – new set of troops against tough competition, and use those battles to propel ASU deep into the playoffs? Or will he and his new look Devils fall flat?
Only time will tell, but early returns seem intriguing, to say the least.
