The MLB Draft is in full swing, and college programs around the country are watching their stars get picked up left and right. The Big Ten has already seen nine players drafted on the first day, including the No. 1 overall pick, Roch Cholowsky from the UCLA Bruins. The Wisconsin Badgers are not even paying attention; there's no reason to, as Wisconsin hasn't had a baseball team since the 1990s. Yet, the MLB Draft is proving that the Badgers need one.
It's one of the most consistent requests you see online towards the new athletic director, Shawn Eichorst: Bring back baseball. Yet, the MLB Draft is also screaming it at him. In more ways than one. First, there are 15 players on the draftable list on MLB.com from Wisconsin. This isn't a "this year" thing either; there are consistently great players being drafted from the state of Wisconsin, just not from the University of Wisconsin, and that's a shame.
There is talent in the state, and every player HAS TO go elsewhere due to the fact that there's not a baseball team in Madison. There was even a player drafted on day one from Wisconsin by the Boston Red Sox: Jace Mataczynski, a shortstop from Hudson High School. A player, in an alternate reality, was recruited by the Badgers to play in Madison before jumping to the MLB.
Shawn Eichorst needs to bring baseball back to the University of Wisconsin
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Another way the MLB Draft is screaming at Eichorst to bring a baseball team to Madison is the sting that every year, there is one Big Ten team without a baseball team. ONLY ONE university in the entire Big Ten, and it's Wisconsin. The conference is known for great baseball, and it would be amazing to see the Badgers compete in it.
This one may not be the MLB Draft per se, but another reason is the fact that there is MLB talent from Wisconsin. Not just the players getting drafted, but active players. Drake Baldwin, the reigning NL Rookie of the Year, is literally from Madison. There's Jarred Kelenic, Daulton Varshon, Pete Fairbanks, among others. There's also some in the pipeline coming up.
While Wisconsin wouldn't have retained every single in-state talented baseball player, there is clearly a pipeline that the Badgers could utilize and enjoy.
Finally, Eichorst may have baseball on his brain already. He keeps talking about his Texas experience, and guess what, the Longhorns will boast one of the premier baseball programs in the country. In the nine years that Eichorst was part of the athletics program for the Longhorns, Texas made the College World Series four times. There was a COVID year in there (lost season), and besides one season, Texas was in the NCAA Tournament and Regionals, barely missing out on the World Series.
Eichorst was a big part of that success in helping the Longhorns fundraise, compete, sign players, and more. This is something he could easily bring to Wisconsin and desperately needs to. Now the hangup for the Badgers is financial and Title IX, but those are yellow lights, not red lights. A visionary leader can figure it out and bring baseball back to Wisconsin.
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