LSU baseball’s latest transfer portal commitment hits for power and has speed

LSU continued to add to its highly thought of transfer portal class by adding one of the top hitters in college baseball. Utah Valley University second baseman Daniel Dickinson committed to the Tigers on Tuesday after hitting .367 with 18 home runs and 53 RBIs in 2024. He set the Wolverines single season stolen base record with 32.

In two seasons at UVU, Dickinson slugged .631 which is the highest career slugging percentage in school history.

Prospectslive.com says Dickinson is one of the best hitters in college baseball. They say he has elite contact skills from the right side of the plate.

Dickinson started mostly at second base for UVU, but he could play on the left side of the infield too. Some project him to be a possible starter at third base, but there are concerns about his arm strength.

Major League Baseball teams have noticed his ability to hit and steal bases and he’s considered one of the top college prospects in the 2025 draft class.

He’s currently playing this summer for the U.S. Collegiate National Team.

Dickinson is a late bloomer. According to Utah Valley’s athletic website, he was 5-foot-4 and overweight as a freshman in high school. He’s now six-foot, 180 pounds, with speed and power.

He didn’t make the varsity high school baseball team until his junior season but ended up a two-time all-conference shortstop at Kennwick High School in Washington.

Former LSU hitting coach Eddie Smith discovered Dickinson at a high school tournament in Washington. Dickinson was committed to an NAIA school in Arizona, called Ottawa University.

Smith, the head coach at Utah Valley at the time, quickly realized Dickinson had the “it factor”, but didn’t have a scholarship to offer him. But he gave Dickinson a chance to walk-on and he ended up setting several records at UVU.

Dickinson is the 11th transfer portal player that has committed to LSU. He might be the crown jewel.

Coach Jay Johnson’s transfer portal class is mostly players who had big seasons at the mid major level college and will now have a chance perform in the toughest college baseball conference.

64Analytics has it ranked as the number one transfer portal class in the country.