Texas A&M's Ryan Prager returning for redshirt junior season

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) - After Texas A&M left-handed starter Ryan Prager’s final outing of the season, a 9-5 Aggie victory over Tennessee in the College World Series finals, he relished the performance. After all, he didn’t know what the future would hold for his team that season, or for himself.

“[I] just competed, kind of left it all out there, because, in the very end, you don’t know when your last outing is going to be,” Prager said after that CWS win. “We’ll see what happens the next couple of days, but that could have been the last one, at least for this year, and I’m not going to save anything.”

Nearly a month later, Prager has decided to “run it back” in Aggieland.

Texas A&M ace Ryan Prager will return to the Aggie baseball team for a redshirt junior season, the left-handed pitcher announced on social media Wednesday.

Prager was the 81st overall selection (third round) in the 2024 MLB Draft by the Los Angeles Angels, a pick with a slot value of $948,600.

“Aggieland, let’s run it back. See you in Omaha!” he wrote in the post on X.

Though conversations with the Angels went well, Prager talked through a development plan with new head coach Michael Earley and new pitching coach Jason Kelly that called him back home to Aggieland, he said.

“I thought that would be huge for my career and be able to put me in a big spot to have a long career and that’s the ultimate goal,” he told KBTX Thursday. “Then, also, a little unfinished business after last year. We came so close, feeling like we have a good shot to be able to avenge some of the things that we weren’t able to accomplish.”

With the belief that his name would be called in the draft, Prager said he went into the life-changing event with an open mind. He and his family had a salary number in mind that the Angels needed to match and they felt comfortable sticking to it with another year in college as a real possibility.

“I knew that I wasn’t going to jump into a situation that I thought was not the right one, because I knew what A&M had to offer,” Prager said. “What one more year of addressing a few things on the development side could do for my career, because the goal is still to be a major league player and to do it for a long time. So, it was kind of a bet on myself at this point.”

In two seasons with the Aggies, Prager has collected a 3.78 ERA with 177 strikeouts and 45 walks issued. He returned to the mound last season a year after undergoing Tommy John surgery, used to repair a torn ligament inside the elbow, and had a career year, posting a 9-1 record and a 2.95 ERA. He fanned 124 batters in 97.2 innings pitched, which ranked 13th in the country.

In two outings during the College World Series, he allowed two earned runs on 10 hits in 10 2/3 innings pitched though the Aggies ultimately fell to Tennessee in the final series.

Prager saw improvement under first-year pitching coach Max Weiner last year, who has since moved on to former head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s staff at Texas. Prager will now get a season to work under Kelly, the former Washington head coach who was the primary hiring target for Earley.

“We’ve had some good conversations and it’s really easy to buy into somebody and to have confidence in someone when you know the people that brought him in,” Prager said of Kelly.

His development plan will mostly stem from the weight room, where he hopes to build strength and at a few miles per hour onto his pitches.

“Maybe there’s a few mechanical unlocks that we can do and just try to address everything,” Prager said. “Nothing has to be a massive change, but I think there’s two or three little tweaks that we can make to make the next jump.”

The process to make a decision was not straight forward. Prager said he ultimately made the final call just moments before he hit send on the social media blast that announced his return. However, through that process, Earley was there for support and guidance when he needed it, Prager said.

“A lot of conversations and ultimately it just felt right,” he said. “There’s kind of that gut feeling and when you have that feeling, you’ve just got to go with it.”