Monte Lee hopes he does not see Weston Wilson in a Clemson uniform this time next year.

“I hope he is good enough that this is his last year at Clemson because that means he had a good year, and that will help us have a good year,” Lee told The Clemson Insider in an exclusive interview recently.

And that would mean the Tigers’ third baseman would be taken high enough in next summer’s Major League Baseball Draft that he would not want to come back. Wilson, a junior, hit just .251 last year for Clemson and was second on the team with five home runs. He had just 26 RBIs.

“We have to get Weston where Weston needs to be, which is a guy who can run the ball out of the yard,” said Lee, whose Tigers will open fall practice today at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. “Weston has to be that power threat. We have to turn him into the player that I feel like he could be.”

Lee believes there is some potential in his third baseman that has not been tapped into. In two previous seasons, Wilson has shown the potential of his star power here or there against teams like South Carolina and Florida State, but for whatever the reason there has not been any consistency.

“We have to get that out of him,” Lee said. “He is aware of it and we talk about it every day and we are working on things every day to get more power out of him. He has some raw power that he has not tapped into.

“He has all the athleticism you need to be a big-time third baseman.”

Lee improved as a defensive third baseman last year after getting benched halfway through the season. When got back in the starting lineup, the errors went down and his confidence began to pick up.

“Weston looks pretty good to me defensively, but that’s just in the work outs,” Lee said. “I think he is more confident. He is in year three, he and Elli (White) both. I have not coached those guys a whole lot. We kind of expect them to be leaders. ‘Look, you guys have played. You are older guys. We kind of expect you to be the guys.’

“I want them to be comfortable. I want them to feel like, ‘This is my job. This is my team.’”

Speaking of White, he will start the fall as Clemson’s shortstop, while freshman Grant Cox will work at second base. Lee likes Cox’s athletic ability and he thinks he can be a good middle infielder for the Tigers.

“I think he can play on either side of the bag, short or second. He has been working out at both and we are trying to get him ready on both sides of the bag,” the Clemson coach said. “We know Elli is going to be the guy at short, but we want to make sure that if something happens to Elli, Grant can step in and play shortstop.

“We want Grant to get acclimated to second base because he has played shortstop his whole life and moving to the other side of the bag is an adjustment. It is way more of an adjustment then people think.”

Sophomore Adam Renwick will also be in the mix as a middle infielder.

“He can really play defense. He can really catch and throw the ball,” Lee said.

Lee continued by saying first base will be up in the air the entire fall and might come down to what happens in the winter practices.

“That will be a spot where some guys are going to have to compete for that job,” Lee said.

Fall practice continues through November and concludes with three Orange & Purple scrimmages from Nov. 6-8.