Southern’s Cardell Thibodeaux looks to improve MLB draft stock in HBCU Swingman Classic

Southern University outfielder Cardell Thibodeaux doesn’t just dominate on the baseball field. In the Jaguars’ locker room, his teammates know better than to challenge him in spades, where trash talk flies as fast as fastballs.

No matter the hand of cards he’s dealt at the table or the variety of pitches thrown at him in the batter’s box, Thibodeaux’s calm demeanor and competitive nature have helped him – and his teammates – succeed.

“I’m competitive on and off the diamond,” Thibodeaux told Andscape. “So I want to be the best at whatever it is.”

As a junior last season, Thibodeaux swept Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year honors, and he was one of three players from historically Black colleges and universities who participated in the MLB Draft Combine in June.

In his final showcase before the 2025 MLB draft, Thibodeaux will be among 50 Division I HBCU athletes playing in the third annual HBCU Swingman Classic on Friday in Atlanta during Major League Baseball All-Star Week.

If selected in the MLB draft, which starts Sunday, Thibodeaux will be the first baseball player drafted from Southern since Javeyan Williams was chosen in the 22nd round in 2019. 

While Thibodeaux has leaned on his faith to guide him and his family through the next week and is grateful for the potential opportunities in his future, a year ago he didn’t want to play baseball anymore.

At the time, Thibodeaux, a transfer from Louisiana-Monroe, was content with hanging up his cleats after a lack of playing time and a loss of joy in his childhood passion. A call from Southern head baseball coach Chris Crenshaw changed Thibodeaux’s trajectory.

“Coach Crenshaw [gave] me this opportunity to play again,” Thibodeaux said. “When I came in, he told me, ‘Dell, man, go ball. Don’t worry about anything else. Don’t worry about how you should be moving, how you should be swinging, changing your swing. Go out there and play the game that you’ve been playing all your life.’ … He allowed me to find that happiness and that joy for the game again.”

Crenshaw, who recruited Thibodeaux heavily while he was in high school, was eager to again offer him the opportunity to join the Jaguars.

By Thibodeaux’s third game with Southern, Crenshaw said he knew Thibodeaux was destined to be a professional baseball player. While warming up for his first at-bat during the Cactus Jack HBCU Classic in February, Thibodeaux told his coach he was going to hit a home run.

“I told him whatever you have to do to get on base,” Crenshaw said, remembering the exchange. “He said, ‘I’m about to hit a bomb right here.’ Two or three pitches later, he was pointing at me as he was crossing home plate, pointing and saying, ‘I told you.’”

Last season, Thibodeaux led the nation in slugging percentage (.847), which measures the total number of bases a player gets per at-bat. He also finished the season ranked No. 2 nationally in batting average (.439) and No. 3 in on-base percentage (.544). 

Crenshaw said while most players with high batting averages early in the season have a decline at the midway point, he watched his outfielder grow more confident and continue to improve.

“He put in the work from the day after we got physicals until the season ended,” Crenshaw said. “He would show up early, stay late talking and break down film. [We] talk about his approaches. It was kind of nonstop.”

According to Crenshaw, Thibodeaux was crucial in high-pressure situations where Southern needed big plays. He finished the season with 71 RBIs, 18 home runs (No. 2 in the SWAC), 13 doubles and five triples.

“He’s doing it when it matters. I can recall him coming through at least 10 or 11 times in big moments where we needed to move the ball,” Crenshaw said. “Like, he would hit a double, he would hit a home run, he would get a base hit to either score or take the lead.”

Though Thibodeaux is only 5-foot-8, his teammate KJ White, who also will compete in the HBCU Swingman Classic, has witnessed Thibodeaux’s power firsthand.

“I think he’s got the best bat to ball, plus power, I’ve ever seen out of his size,” White said. “He could pretty much hit the ball wherever he wanted to hit it. So that makes him a threat automatically because it’s like you can’t just go up there and throw him anything. He’s gonna hit it out of the park.”

Since the middle of the season, Thibodeaux has attracted MLB scouts to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Crenshaw estimates six or seven MLB teams are very interested in Thibodeaux. During the season, Thibodeaux was solely focused on his play during games. When he was invited to the MLB combine in Phoenix and had several conversations with teams, Thibodeaux said the reality of playing professional baseball felt like an answered prayer.

“Since I’ve been playing, I’ve always been overlooked as a player.  I always felt that I had to do more than everybody else to be seen,” he said. “So I think just having the mindset of being the underdog and having to do the extra work just kind of kept me hungry … helped me stay focused and grind harder than anybody else.”

In June, Thibodeaux competed for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in the MLB Draft League, an amateur collegiate summer baseball league that serves as a showcase for top draft-eligible prospects. He played several positions, ranging from left field to right field to designated hitter to show his versatility. In seven games, Thibodeaux batted .423 with no fielding errors in 50 innings played.

“This is who I am, and this is what I do. I can perform at any level and just have fun,” Thibodeaux said. “I know what I bring to the table, and I believe that I can help any program excel, not just [in] baseball, but because of who I am and what I believe in.

“It’s more to it than just swinging the bat and throwing the ball – it’s also the person that you are.”

Thibodeaux and White are looking to showcase the standard of Southern baseball. The Jaguars finished the season ranked No. 2 nationally for on-base percentage, with their batters reaching the plate 44.7% of the time. Southern also ranked No. 16 nationally in batting average (.312), second among HBCUs, with Alabama State University (.317) ranking seventh overall.

“We have a lot of talent in HBCU programs. It’s a lot of talent that’s here that’s not being seen just because we don’t have as much publicity or as much attention,” Thibodeaux said. “But being able to go to the MLB, these MLB stadiums, and perform and showcase what we have is a great opportunity for not just us personally but for HBCU programs as a whole.”

Thibodeaux, who is in the NCAA’s transfer portal, is weighing whether to transfer to a different program or make the jump to pro baseball. For the draft, he will be with his family in Lafayette, Louisiana, waiting to hear the results. He said he will make a decision about his future afterward.

Regardless of what happens, he said he’s grateful for the opportunity to represent Southern in Atlanta.

“I’m very thankful for the support of the fan base, my coaches, and my team. I love them all,” Thibodeaux said.