Arizona State’s baseball announcement that starting in 2026, and in conjunction with new NCAA scholarship number rules, it will offer full scholarships to 34 players is a significant change from the original 11.7 partial scholarships it has offered to date. Head coach Willie Bloomquist is naturally elated to expand his recruiting capabilities and be less consumed with roster constraints that have hindered the program.

“It’s a great day for Sun Devil Baseball today,” Bloomquist pronounced. “To have the flexibility to go after the best talent in the country and bring them here is a message. Moving forward, we’re still going to go after the right kids, but having the ability to go after talent and bring the best to Tempe is huge for the program.”

Less than a week away from February 14th’s Opening Day, the battle for spots on the mound continues to ensue. Bloomquist announced on Thursday that junior lefty Ben Jacobs will start Friday night and senior righty Jack Martinez Saturday against Ohio State, but the Sunday slot, along with midweek games throughout the season, are still undecided.

“We have a lot of guys fighting for innings,” Bloomquist said. “There are eight or nine arms that are all interchangeable at this point. We’ve asked for tough decisions in a good way for a couple of years here, and now we finally gave it.”

Martinez is a transfer from Louisiana-Lafayette who helped the Ragin’ Cajuns make the Regional Final before falling to eventual national runner-up Texas A&M. Martinez brings a more veteran presence to a team with a healthy balance of upper and underclassmen, and his experience on several teams throughout college has helped him adjust to new environments fairly quickly.

“I feel like I have the ability to adapt,” Martinez mentioned. “Being in three different programs in four years has its pros and cons, but I feel like in college baseball, a lot of programs have so many new players every year. You’re kind of in the same boat as a lot of other kids, and that helps make it a little more comfortable.”

Martinez is a part of arguably the most talented bullpen in Bloomquist’s tenure at ASU. The battle for innings brings a healthy level of competition that has allowed each pitcher to bring out the best in each other, and the depth helps keep the players on their toes. Bloomquist will have good problems to deal with on the mound, but the regular season will certainly separate the standouts.

“I think it had to do with the environment,” Martinez voiced. “There’s a lot of really good pitchers here, and I think that kind of raises everybody’s level, which is fun to be a part of. We’ve definitely given the hitters some trouble, and I’m hoping that feeds them a bit of motivation.”

In the past, the batters have dominated the team's fall and winter clashes, but the talent in the bullpen changed that narrative. With the pitchers challenging the hitters and even stumping a few players in the box, the competitiveness in inter-squad games in the fall only grew with each at-bat.

“It’s been two sides going at each other all fall,” redshirt sophomore outfielder Brandon Compton recognized. “We’ve good pitchers and hitters all around, and that’s the way it should be in the inner squad. I feel like we finally got that aspect, so even if we’re not hitting the best, we’re still developing.”

Last summer, in June of 2024, Bloomquist brought in a new pitching coach, Jeremy Accardo. With 18 years of professional experience,e both coaching and playing, Accardo brought in a level of respect every pitcher immediately gave him. In less than a year, Accardo has already established relationships with his players that have the intangibles running high ahead of the season.

“We do what he says, and everybody trusts him,” sophomore righty Wyatt Halvorson commented. “We all know that he’s really good at what he does, and I think that’s translated to the mound. We’ve been able to trust ourselves out there and just do our thing.”

For Halvorson, Sun Devil blood has been coursing through his veins his entire life. Back when Bloomquist was a player at ASU in 1998, Wyatt’s father, Greg, was a catcher for the Sun Devils. His role and .303 average was a crucial part of Arizona State’s run to the College World Series, where the Sun Devils finished as the National Runner-Up.

Wyatt was recruited by Bloomquist in high school, and it would be nothing short of special for the sophomore to be part of the squad that gives Bloomquist his first tournament appearance as a coach.

“That would be incredible,” Halvorson admitted. “It’s what we all want at the end of the day, and it’s truly like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. That’s all I’ve dreamt about, just making a run at this thing because it’s my childhood dream.”

Even with a plethora of freshmen and transfers arriving in Tempe this past offseason, the locker room has a level of chemistry that has the players close and ready for Opening Night. Bloomquist also hired former Major Leaguer Jason Ellison as a new hitting coach in the summer of 2024.

Like Accardo, Ellison has made his mark on the players in his short time in Tempe. Their play in the fall and winter reflected that, and Ellison has noticed the level of collaboration between them on and off the field.

“It’s a tight-knit group in there,” Ellison observed. “I can tell these boys have fun together, so it’s a big deal. You can see the excitement in practice, and I think we’re just ready to go out and compete with other teams.”

As one of the few players who has been a Sun Devil in all three years with Bloomquist as the skipper, senior first baseman Jacob Tobias has seen the highs and lows that have left ASU without an NCAA tournament appearance in three straight years. In his opinion, the 2025 team has a real chance to complete what the last few teams have fallen just short of.

“I try to go into every year super confident,” Tobias added. “The talent is off the charts this year. It’s pretty amazing to see not only the bats we have in the lineup but the arms we have. It’s been a really cool thing to watch form in the last six months.”

While both sides of the ball performed well in spurts last year, they continually failed to get on the same page. The bats would get hot right as the pitching output fell off a cliff, and vice versa. But with the bullpen and lineup adding immense depth during the offseason, the team's stability grew exceptionally.

“We have to be consistent and play the game we know how to play,” Compton vocalized. “The batters and pitchers haven’t been able to play well simultaneously in the past, so we just need to come together as a team and play the way we know how.”

On the hitting side, the ninth slot in the lineup has given Bloomquist and his staff problems in recent years. No matter who they threw there, there was a serious lack of consistency. The depth of bats this year not only can change that, but the pressure of players itching to replace each other can also help the players bring each other up and perform at a higher level.

“We definitely have a few guys that are capable of playing there,” Ellison added. “Only nine guys can play, and we know it. So, it’s a matter of just keeping those guys ready and how they can help contribute. I think we have enough depth, and we have a lineup that can do some serious damage.”

The Sun Devils ended the 2024 regular season with a 15-3 record in their final 18 games before breaking down and losing their first two games in the 2024 Pac-12 tournament, watching any chance of making the postseason burst into flames. For the returners who witnessed the breakdown, along with the transfers who are itching for a chance to play postseason baseball, the hunger in the locker room seems to be growing.

“We’re all really close, and we all understand the job that has to be done this year,” Tobias explained. “We’re all on the same page, and I think that helps us. It’s something we don’t even have to talk about, it’s just going up and knowing there’s a specific job that we all know has to be done.”

In its first year in the Big 12, ASU is looking to make its mark on the conference. The talent of the Big 12 is a force to be reckoned with, but Bloomquist isn’t shying away from any of it. The addition of scholarships will certainly be a large helping hand in terms of talent acquisition, but it changes nothing of Bloomquist’s philosophy when it comes to a successful team.

“For us, it’s status quo,” Bloomquist expressed. “You try to build the best team possible regardless of what conference you’re in. Our job is to put together the best team we can on the field and button our chin strap. Whether it’s the Pac 12 or the Big 12, we’re going to play our brand of baseball the best we know how.”

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