Three burning questions for Florida Baseball heading into the 2025 season

We are officially less than a month away until Florida Baseball takes the field for real against Air Force on February 14. The Gators are coming off a second straight appearance in the College World Series but have to replace Jac Caglianone, among others, as they hope to avoid the roller coaster regular season they experienced in 2024.

The following are three key questions that we have before first pitch.

Is Liam Peterson ready to step up?

Going from high school to the SEC is a challenge for everyone, even highly rated prospects. Liam Peterson was thrown straight into the fire in 2024 and showed flashes of what made him a top prospect coming out of high school.

Peterson struck out 77 hitters over 63 innings of work, but 44 walks contributed to a 6.43 ERA.

Perfect Game ranks Peterson as the 14th best sophomore in the country, and if he can clean up some command issues, he should be able to make it deeper into the 6th inning and beyond more often in 2025.

Will the outfield by the driving force for the offense?

Kevin O'Sullivan has some options to play with, but the combination of Blake Cyr, Kyle Jones, and Ty Evans has the potential to give the Gators a conga line of guys who could all be over .400 for on-base base percentage.

It is not a guarantee, though, as Cyr, a transfer from Miami, had his season end last year after thumb surgery. Jones hit .349 with Stetson last year, but that was in the Atlantic Sun conference. Evans is the only returning member who played for Florida last year and hit over .300, but like Cyr, he also had his season end when he crashed into the wall against Kentucky.

Who's on 1st?

D1Baseball dropped their predictions of Florida's starting lineup for 2025, and they have freshman Brendan Lawson tabbed to play 1st base this season. Lawson is from Toronto and was ranked 57th by Perfect Game in the class of 2024.

He was, however, a shortstop/third baseman in high school. He's listed at 6'3", so in theory, he should be able to slot into the position, and he was noted for his size and bat speed coming out of high school.

If Lawson isn't the guy, Luke Heyman played 1st last year on the days Caglianone pitched.

Florida also brought in Justin Nadeau from Jacksonville, who played primarily 2nd base with the Dolphins but did make a handful of appearances at 1st. He hit .395 last year but did miss time due to injury. He's listed on Florida's roster as an INF/OF guy.