The 2023 Mississippi State baseball season is, well, over. It’s done. The Bulldogs won’t be moving on or playing in the postseason. The offseason is, unfortunately, already here for Chris Lemonis and his Mississippi State Bulldogs.

In all honesty, it’s incredibly frustrating to be sitting in this moment given all of the talent assembled in Starkville.

Mississippi State baseball, for the second consecutive season, has failed to make it to the SEC Tournament and will miss the NCAA Tournament. For a program that likes to pride itself as being one of the dominant forces in college baseball, that shouldn’t be okay.

Mississippi State baseball misses SEC Tournament

Nobody should be sitting comfortably with where MSU baseball is right now. Fans are right to be upset and frustrated and critical (though, not to a degree that is unhealthy).

As for the guys on the field and in the dugout and directly invested in what happens, it’s time for them to cleanse their palate after this disaster of a season and start looking toward the future.

Players and coaches are likely feeling disappointed and dejected for the massive gulf between what this season was and what it instead should have been. If they aren’t, then maybe they’re already focused on trying to fix what went wrong.

And now we move into the offseason.

What’s next for Mississippi State baseball and Chris Lemonis?

This is the perfect time for Lemonis and his Mississippi State baseball team to actually fix what went wrong.

The Bulldogs need a pitching coach and they’ll need a really good one. It seems likely that MSU will end up losing players to the transfer portal. And so, Lemonis will have his hands full with addressing those issues.

Assuming that he’s returning for next season, that is.

Given that Lemonis fired his pitching coach previously and has spoken confidently about his possible return, that seems like the surest bet right now.

If Lemonis is indeed brought back, he’s facing an uphill battle.

He’ll have to find a way to fix the roster (starting with whatever it is that has gone wrong with the pitching staff), hire a new pitching coach, minimize losses to the transfer portal, and then bring in some key transfers to fill gaps and improve going forward.

That’s… a lot.

Not to mention that Lemonis will need to somehow find a way to get fans invested in this program once more.

That’ll be a challenge.