Just a few more weeks of winter, and D1 will resume its rights. To build up the pressure a bit, Baseball TV France offers you a first look at the 2025 season.
Europe in focus.
This new season will be marked by three international events, the U12 European Championship, early July, the U23 European Championship, early August and the Senior European Championship, late September. We won’t dwell too much on these competitions, since all that matters, according to the FFBS president, is to bring back an Olympic medal in baseball five. Just to remind you that the national team will play in a real group of death, against Israel, Great Britain and the Netherlands, from which it will be quite complicated to get out. On these three European competitions, will the Blues finally manage to snatch a podium?
Fortunately, after initial versions that stretched the season until late October, the Federation managed to fit the 14 matchdays of the D1 championship and the 2 rounds of series between March 22 and September 14, sacrificing the All-Star Game, which is not a big loss. Since we’re talking about European stakes, France will host the European Baseball Cup, from June 2 to 7. Two French teams will be in the running, Rouen, the host club and Montpellier. They will face a Spaniard (Tenerife), two Belgians (Hoboken and Deurne), two Austrians (Vienna and Wiener Neustadt) and a Croat (Split). It must be admitted that the European Cups have lost some of their lustre and visibility with the departure of Dutch and Italian clubs, and that the Champions League, in which we find Germans, Czechs, a Spaniard and a Croat, does not really resemble the highest European summit.
A bit of novelty.
But let’s get back to our good old French championship, welcoming a newcomer, Béziers. The Pirates are the 23rd club to reach the highest national level in the 21st century. This restores a bit of balance between north and south, but the observation remains that high-level French baseball is characterised by a void that runs from southern Île-de-France to northern Occitanie (with the notable exception of La Rochelle), without any club able to play in D1, which inevitably makes travel more complicated.
Béziers will be thrown straight into the deep end, as for their D1 debut, the Pirates will cross France to set their ship on the banks of the Seine. Not easy for a promoted team to face the French champion, even if it’s always better to play Rouen at the start of the season than at the time of the playoffs. This will be a first test that could say a lot about Béziers’ ambitions against the reality of the top level.
What’s new in the rosters?
We don’t know much yet about the 2025 line-ups. Let’s hope the clubs will be open in terms of communication, that they won’t hold back on recruitment until the last moment, that we’ll have complete and precise information on the new players. The culture of secrecy is still too entrenched, and contributes to the lack of visibility of the championship and of baseball. The Huskies have let slip a few names, two new exports to replace the Smith-Defries pair, the arrival of Kenny Esposito, the return of Luc Viger, but something tells us that this is not the end, both in terms of arrivals and departures, on the side of the French championship. By listening to the grapevine, we learn that Montpellier would have a new American coach and that Owen Ozanich’s future would no longer be on the side of Veyrassi, that Béziers would aim for a strong non-JFL recruitment, that Quentin Moulin (Hamburg) and Nicolas Antoine (Regensburg) would try their luck across the Rhine, that many clubs would have financial difficulties forcing them to cut back on foreign recruitment, notably Savigny and Toulouse. All this being of course conditional. One can also wonder what will become of some players from Montigny like D. Mayeux (who would be announced on the side of Sénart), the promising Lassaline, the combative Do Carmo. We also think of Yorfrank Lopez who posted a farewell message to the Cougars on his social networks, which does not mean that he is definitely saying goodbye to the French championship.
A little more JFL
After a first experimental season, we’re doing it again on the JFL, hoping that the coaches will learn their lessons better and that we won’t see matches lost on a technicality because of this clause, which may have cost the Cometz a place in the semi-finals. Sources close to the CFS have confided to us that the idea of extending the measure to shortstops was discussed, but that the idea was quickly put in the cupboard. It was probably complicated and premature, but the shortstop position continues to be dominated by foreigners. But we remain at 5 JFL players on the field and we maintain the constraints for the pitchers, who remain at 7 mandatory innings for a doubleheader and 11 for a tripleheader. It’s a rather good idea.
A constructive vision
The DTN and the CFS deserve credit for trying to build for the long term, to give visibility to the clubs while their economic situation is becoming increasingly complex. We can only welcome the fact that video capture and live broadcasting of matches, even minimally, is being requested. In the documents distributed to the clubs that Baseball TV France has been able to obtain, we read, as a request to the clubs, to « actively collaborate with each other, with the Federation, with local and national media, as well as on social networks, to promote matches, players and the competition as a whole », which should go without saying, but is not sufficiently implemented. In short, we want to give the competition some style, with a harmonised use of logos, brands, player photos, which will strengthen the image of D1 and be positive for everyone.
There is also a lot of emphasis on the fact of playing on Saturdays and Sundays, with sporting, economic, attractiveness arguments, but also health and safety. Having crossed France by minibus on Sunday to Monday nights, we approve this last point. On the bottom line, it is difficult to oppose this will, but it is certain that the clubs also have strong organisational constraints. It will be interesting to see who plays the game and who remains on the good old Sunday doubleheader.
Finally, it should be known that all the conditions of engagement for the 2025 season will serve as an evaluation grid for the obtaining of the sports rights for the 2026 season. From 2026, there will no longer be a so-called « declarative » condition of engagement, but rather a renewal of sports rights by the federation based on the evaluation of N-1. We cannot be against virtue and construction.
Young talents to watch
A breath of youth is blowing through D1, with some very promising profiles. Baseball TV France has played the game of designating one to follow per team, which is of course restrictive. But here are the 8 young talents, under 20 years old, that we will be keeping a close eye on this year.
Béziers: Baptiste Volpato, 16 years 7 months. No one has forgotten his title of best hitter of the U15 European Championship (.692), crowned by a 4 for 4 (including a home run) against the Netherlands, a performance that we do not remember seeing another French hitter achieve. It was a bit more complicated last season, his first in D2 with the Pirates, an average of .283 with 11 RBIs, but also 19 strikeouts. Nothing serious for a young hitter, that said. If he gains a few inches and a few pounds of muscle and if the motivation is there, he could become a solid hitter, in any case we will follow with interest his confrontations against the best pitchers in D1.
La Rochelle: Esteban Briones, 18 years 7 months. He is certainly one of the leaders of the next generation of French baseball. And he is better when the opposition becomes stronger. His season average is .298, it rises to .339 in matches against the top 4 of the championship and even to .409 against the best pitchers of the season (Lopez, Vincent, Igami, Prioul, Canelon, Paredes, Orozco). You want more figures? He is the number 3 French for slugging, the number 2 French for OPS+, the number 2 French for Win Probability Added. That’s very strong. In defence, his 4 errors do not prevent him from being ranked 5th among outfielders for the Range Factor and 6th for the Fielding Runs. The hardest part starts for him, confirming this success, but we don’t really doubt that he will achieve it.
Metz: Hugo Py, 16 years 5 months. It was not an easy season for the youngest player in the championship. 10.1 innings pitched, but 16 hits (including 3 home runs) and an earned run average that hovers around 9, that’s what you call a difficult apprenticeship, even if we notice that he only threw 3 walks, and that’s one of the first qualities of a pitcher to touch the zone. But above all, we really liked his outing in the semi-final of the Challenge de France against La Rochelle. Of course, when he came in to pitch 2 innings at the end of the game, the score was settled (7-2), but he went through the Boucaniers’ line-up, in a very stressful situation, since it was a question of qualifying Metz for their first final at the highest level. He still has a lot to learn, but the Cometz may give him a chance to progress.
Montpellier: Ben Couvreur, 17 years 6 months. He shouldn’t be in this category. When you have been named the best pitcher of the 15U Baseball World Cup in 2022, with notably 5.2 superb innings against Colombia (0 ER, 6K), then achieved a major performance a few months later at the U18 European Championship against Spain (3.2 IP, 0 ER, 7K), and in 2023 you were elected MVP of the French Championship final, you had the right to an article on the mlb.com website titled « the teenage pitching sensation who’s putting French baseball on the map » you are obviously no longer a prospect. But to have a completely blank season due to an elbow injury, at his age, is very worrying. We will therefore follow with great attention and interest (and concern) the return to play of the left-hander, hoping to see him back at his best level very soon.
Rouen: Alex Laval-Quesney, 17 years 6 months. He showed interesting things last season, shutting out Savigny for 5 innings, doing the same against Montigny. It was more complicated against Montpellier for his first appearance in D1 (2 points, 3 walks in 1.2 IP) then against Metz to close the season (3 earned runs in 2 innings), but the young pitcher has some potential. A fracture deprived him of the end of the season and the U18 title, but we know the habit in Rouen to give their chances to young pitchers to prepare the relay and he could play an interesting role this season.
Savigny: Théo Rioux, 18 years 3 months. 4th best defensive average in D1 at third base, Rioux has imposed himself in the Lions’ hot corner. At bat, we appreciated his speed which allowed him to steal 9 bases without being caught and to hit two doubles and a triple, earning him a beautiful 19th place in secondary average. By gaining a year of experience, he should be able to reduce his number of strikeouts and hit with a little more regularity, and move up in the hierarchy of the solid line-up of the French vice-champions.
Sénart: Tristan Laufenbuchler, 19 years 10 months. He represents a rare oasis in the desert of French D1 shortstops. It was certainly very complicated for him offensively, with a low .129 average, no hit of more than one base, .052 OPS+. But he kept his best moments at bat for the moments that count, the playoff against Montigny with his first triple of the season and a 2 for 4 in the decisive match. Despite his 9 errors, he showed some good flashes in defence, with a 3rd place among all shortstops in range factor. He leads in almost all defensive categories, or almost, his accomplice Felix Brown, and should probably become the starting shortstop of the young Sénart team.
Toulouse: Arthur Saumande, 18 years 10 months. Of the three musketeers of the Toulouse outfield, he seems the most promising. His OPS+ of 129 shows that he is already among the good hitters of the championship, he knows how to run (8 stolen bases in 9 attempts) and be productive (12.4 runs created). In defence, his 3 assists put him at the level of Brossier or Jiminian, which is not bad at all as a comparison. In short, a really complete player, who could explode this season and win his place in the French team.
F.C.
