This is not a surprise. The writing was on the wall when Van Horn spoke during his end-of-season news conference.
As you say, it isn’t surprising. I did love to watch him field, but he had to hit to crack the lineup. After his early season success, his hitting just wasn’t consistent.
College baseball is tough, tough, tough. I’m glad I don’t have to make the decisions. I’ve been following Jaxon on twitter for years. He committed a long time ago, and was always tweeting good, positive things about the Hogs.
Then in early season, when he first got in, I think he smacked a long double and also had a few other early hits. He looked good at 2B. I thought he might move in on 2B and let Shaddy DH. Then his hitting started to fall off, and when we got to conference, it really dropped. Now he’s gone.
Do coaches flat out tell kids they need to transfer? Or do they see the writing on the wall? I guess maybe it’s a combination.
Was DVH sending him a signal to work harder, or telling him to move on?
A Power 5 program can’t just rescind a scholarship anymore. A rule passed in 2015 ended the practice of annual renewals.
What a coach can do is be honest with a player about his status on the team and prospects moving forward. Sometimes a player will stick it out if playing time doesn’t look promising, but in a lot of cases they don’t and transfer to JUCO.
It’s less complicated when the player is not on scholarship because there is nothing binding the program and the player. I don’t know if Jaxon was on scholarship; that information is pretty tight-lipped.
I think this is just standard practice for college baseball. Rather than sit the bench when you are a decent player, you transfer to a school that will offer you a chance to play full time. Jaxon looked good to me at the beginning of last year. He was hitting very well to start out. I liked his swing. He tailed off and couldn’t produce his early numbers. It happens to young player. Fletcher is really an anomaly. I hope he does well and gets another opportunity with a big school.