Auburn's early 2018 baseball lineup/depth chart

Matthew Stevens | Montgomery Advertiser

Show Caption Hide Caption Auburn coach Butch Thompson and players after 6-0 loss to Florida State Auburn coach Butch Thompson and players after 6-0 loss to Florida State.

Auburn head coach Butch Thompson after a 7-4 win over UCF in NCAA Regional Auburn head coach Butch Thompson after a 7-4 win over UCF in NCAA Regional.

Ward with the pitch, Ward with the catch⚾ @JaretWard pic.twitter.com/u3hzXvSlda — Judd Ward ⚾ (@JuddWard1) February 21, 2017

AUBURN – While Auburn head coach Butch Thompson is currently rehabbing from offseason knee surgery, he and his staff have a problem every Southeastern Conference program would love to deal with.

Auburn didn’t think they’d have this much talent returning and has to figure out the math for the 11.7 scholarship allotment.

“I don’t want to comment on that right now but the work our staff did to put together on this incoming recruiting class is really impressive,” Thompson said. “This group comes in connected and their excited to play together and that’s already half the battle to building a championship-worthy team. The talent and potential of this group has already excited us and we hope can challenge for championships, which is our expectation at Auburn baseball.”

So…since Thompson won’t say – we will. If Auburn doesn’t have a surprise signing before the baseball draft deadline, and judging by the participation of Auburn team camp and the enrollment of the summer session of classes they likely won’t, the Tigers will have more talent than maybe any team arriving in the last 15-20 years and could be a preseason top-20 team.

Therefore, here’s a projection of Auburn’s 2018 lineup and depth chart:

C – Steven Williams, TBA?, Mike Rojas

OUTLOOK: The mission for Williams, an Under Armour All-American, over the next three years begins this fall. His job, with the help of Thompson and the Auburn staff will be to turn himself into a prospect that pro scouts believe is a natural catcher because that’s what scouting sources are telling the Montgomery Advertiser why he fell on draft boards and didn’t draw the bonus money out of high school he wanted to sign. Williams, who hit .524 with 16 doubles, three triples, 11 home runs and 49 RBIs, as a junior in high school is believed to already have a bat that can play at the college level immediately. It’ll be interesting if Auburn coaches, specifically new assistant Karl Nonemaker can find another catching prospect late to sign or will Auburn get more serious about developing Rojas, who has MLB bloodlines, in his second year after transferring for Chipola College.

1B - Brendan Venter, Conor Davis, Dylan Ingram

OUTLOOK: With all due respect to Venter, he arrives at Auburn as the second-most hyped player transferring for McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas. But Jarrett Stidham doesn’t play baseball and Venter is about as solid JUCO bat as anybody could hope for so there’s no taking away his potential stardom on this campus. After being a junior college All-America selection, Venter was projected to play third base – his more natural position in 2018 – but after Josh Anthony went undrafted, he’ll likely need to find a new spot. With the graduation of Daniel Robert, Venter’s power bat fills this spot nicely if he can learn the other corner of the diamond this fall.

2B – Luke Jarvis, Edouard Julien

OUTLOOK: Don’t expect the middle of the Auburn infield to look differently next season but expect Jarvis to be healthy after being able to rest and rehab a back injury that halted his 2017 season. Thompson has confirmed to the Montgomery Advertiser that Julien, who was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 37th round last week, is on campus and ready to begin summer session classes. Julien, a native of Quebec, Canada, is one of the Canada’s best Under-18 prospects and may push for playing time after participating in tournaments in Florida and Cuba with Canada U-18 national team during the summer of 2016.

SS – Will Holland, Cade Evans

OUTLOOK: Holland had a breakout final month in his freshman season and is clearly the projected shortstop for Auburn next season. If he’s able to add a productive fall and preseason session with Auburn hitting coach Doug Sisson, he could show his athleticism at the plate with more power and extra-base hit potential. Evans is an incoming freshman from Chattanooga, Tennessee, whose immediately translatable attribute is speed. Among many of his impressive high school stats, Evans had 101 career stolen bases.

3B – Josh Anthony, Brendan Venter

OUTLOOK: It was a shock to see Anthony go undrafted last week after he was selected out of junior college in the 16th round by the Atlanta Braves. If Anthony can rebound from the disappointment, which Thompson says will be his first mission in talking with the senior-to-be, then he can parlay another year of hitting instruction with Sisson into more power numbers and a productive year in the middle of Auburn’s order.

LF – Jay Estes, Bowen McGuffin

OUTLOOK: With the emergence of Holland at shortstop and a rash of late-season injuries to outfielders, Estes was moved to the outfield at Auburn with relatively solid results. Auburn will likely need his veteran presence in the lineup early and former Auburn assistant Brad Bohannon, who is now the head coach at Alabama, would privately tell other members of the coaching staff he thought Estes was a natural outfielder anyway. McGuffin hit just .245 last season but received 30 starts at a corner outfield position and could be a reliable veteran in 2018.

CF – Judd Ward, Jeremy Johnson

OUTLOOK: This is the biggest hole that needs to be filled this fall by Thompson and his staff. Ward will get a crack at being the third different center fielder in Thompson’s three seasons at Auburn with the previous two (Anfernee Grier and Jonah Todd) being drafted in the top-six rounds of the draft. Ward was the 2016 Class 5A Player of the Year out of Russellville High School as he and current Auburn teammate Cody Greenhill helped them to three consecutive state titles in 2015-17. Johnson got 12 starts in corner outfield positions last year but hit just .229 last season but provides the tools necessary to compete for the job as a veteran.

RF – Conor Davis, Bowen McGuffin, Cade Evans

OUTLOOK: Davis only got one start in the outfield, a 11-8 loss to Georgia Tech on April 4. However, he has the athleticism to make such a transition work after being a three-year All-state high school quarterback at Blessed Trinity Catholic in Roswell, Georgia. If Davis can make this transition, it will allow Auburn to free up an incoming freshman (Tanner Burns, Greenhill etc.) to platoon the designated hitter spot with Ingram.

DH – Dylan Ingram, Tanner Burns, Cody Greenhill, Conor Davis

OUTLOOK: Ingram led the Tigers in practically every power number (home runs, RBIs, etc.) but finished the year with almost as many strikeouts (23) as base hits (29) in Southeastern Conference play. As a senior, he’ll have to get on base more to fend off incoming freshmen pitchers Burns and Greenhill for the two-way player that Thompson desperately wants on this roster.