Gerrit Cole, Rob Rasmussen, Trevor Bauer, Adam Plutko, Cody Poteet, James Kaprielian.

Coach John Savage’s three College World Series teams were anchored by future MLB pitchers.

But Westwood hasn’t been graced with that same pitching pedigree for a minute, much less this season.

Through 48 games in 2025, UCLA baseball’s starting pitchers have accumulated just 19 starts of at least five innings – in which the team went 14-5 – and just three quality starts, where the Bruins remained undefeated.

In the Bruins’ losses of their middling 9-9 stretch, the team’s starting pitcher only made it through five frames thrice, and UCLA’s weekend rotation only seems to worsen as the season progresses – an unfortunate trend leading up to the postseason.

If Savage can’t rectify his staff’s recent woes, the Bruins will be home early come the Big Ten and – if they qualify – NCAA tournaments, bringing a disappointing end to a season that began with the team’s best 30-game start since 2010, when it made the CWS.

Junior right-hander Michael Barnett looked poised for a breakout campaign with a 3.03 ERA over his first 26.2 innings pitched of 2025, tossing seven shutout innings with a career-high 10 strikeouts in his return to the weekend rotation against Indiana on March 22. In his 27 innings since, however, Barnett has posted a 6.33 ERA.

Further comparing his first 26.2 innings pitched to his most recent 27, Barnett’s WHIP escalated from 1.20 to 1.67, his K/9 plummeted from 12.15 to 6.33, and his HR/9 shot up from 0.0 to 2.0.

In 2024, Barnett was a workhorse for the Bruins, tossing at least 100 pitches on four occasions. But the right-hander has yet to do so once this season.

Sunday starter sophomore right-hander Landon Stump boasts a 5.43 ERA across 15 starts this season but has posted a 8.10 mark over his last four appearances. Stump’s late-season slump seems reminiscent of the end to his freshman campaign, where he garnered a 3.91 ERA through his first 25.1 innings, but a 9.89 mark through his final 23.2.

Wylan Moss might be the Bruins’ most peculiar case, however. The freshman right-hander posted a 2.59 ERA and 1.19 WHIP through 24.1 innings as a midweek starter and weekend reliever before becoming UCLA’s Friday night starter April 4. And as the weekend tone-setter, Moss allowed just three earned runs through 14 innings pitched in three starts before being moved to the bullpen in favor of redshirt junior right-hander Ian May – despite Savage saying Moss had no injury concerns.

May, on the other hand, has struggled mightily as a Bruin weekend starter. In his first stint as UCLA’s Saturday starter at the beginning of the season, he put up a 5.74 ERA across 15.2 innings pitched in four games before switching roles with Barnett. As a reliever – and eventually the midweek starter, taking Moss’ old role – May posted a 2.93 ERA across 27.2 frames.

But since being appointed the Friday night guy, May has allowed six runs in two starts, totalling just eight innings.

Still, ahead of UCLA’s series in Champaign, Illinois, May is penciled in to start the series opener against Illinois, while Moss will remain in the bullpen.

Savage found success in converting back-end bullpen arms into weekend starters in each of the past three seasons with Max Rajcic, Alonzo Tredwell and Luke Jewett – all of whom were snapped up by MLB teams following their first collegiate seasons as starting pitchers.

That streak, however, appears to be nearing its end.

As this season’s Friday night starter, junior right-hander Cody Delvecchio – last season’s setup man – posted a 6.82 ERA and 1.45 WHIP across seven starts totaling 33 innings before becoming academically ineligible after his March 28 appearance.

The Bruins’ bullpen has also taken its fair share of blows this season. Sophomore right-hander Luke Rodriguez has a 2.11 ERA through 21.1 frames, but hasn’t pitched since March 29 due to academic ineligibility.

Junior right-hander Jack O’Connor, the Bruins’ setup man, carried a 1.56 ERA but has been sidelined since April 13 with a forearm strain. And sophomore right-hander Justin Lee, the team’s closer, left Tuesday’s affair against Long Beach State with an apparent injury.

All that has left Savage with just graduate student right-hander August Souza, freshman right-hander Easton Hawk and redshirt sophomore southpaw Chris Grothues – a trio that combined for two collegiate appearances in 2024 – as his only high-leverage options out of the bullpen.

Notably, though, right-handers redshirt senior Chris Aldrich, redshirt junior Nate Leibold and junior Finn McIlroy – who began 2024 as the Saturday starter – have yet to pitch this season because of injury, while freshmen right-hander Rex Solle and left-hander Justin Cuellar haven’t pitched in 2025, either.

The college baseball postseason is a gauntlet unlike any other in collegiate sports. In the Big Ten tournament, UCLA could play up to four games in five days. And in the NCAA tournament, the Bruins could play five games in four days during regionals, three games in three days during super regionals and eight games in nine days at the CWS. And baseball hurlers can’t throw at high volumes on consecutive days without risk of injury, unlike softball pitchers.

Given the current depth and inexperience of UCLA’s bullpen, the Bruins don’t stand a chance in the postseason if their rotation doesn’t improve.

The Bruins have only scored first 18 times this season – and are 17-1 when doing so. Weak starting pitching has continuously left UCLA playing catch-up. And though the offense has 17 comeback wins and averages eight runs per game, constantly betting on late-inning magic is not a sound strategy for a team looking to earn some hardware.

Since 2021, injuries and program departures have repeatedly put UCLA in tough positions on the mound – and outside his 2019 super regional team, Savage’s best pitching staffs is at least a decade behind him.

Pitching development has changed dramatically – and in ways Savage has continuously embraced – since the coach’s last and only national title in 2013, but there’s a growing case for the narrative that the veteran coach is being left behind.

And as Savage nears the end of his contract year, there’s no better time for him to work his team out of a pitching-led downfall and prove why he should continue to helm the Bruins for seasons to come.