With Tennessee baseball’s run in the College World Series over we now turn to the offseason and roster building for the 2024 campaign. Plenty of roster building is currently going on with the transfer portal in full effect but the MLB Draft is also an important part of the offseason.
Tennessee has a number of players that will be taken in the 20-round draft with anyone picked in the first couple rounds poised to go professional. Anyone drafted in the first round of the MLB Draft is a lock to go pro. So are any Vols projected to go in the first round of the 2023 MLB Draft?
Right-handed pitcher Chase Dollander will go in the first round with recent mock drafts backing it up.
ESPN’s latest mock draft pegs Dollander to go to Arizona with the 12th pick in next month’s MLB Draft.
“Dollander’s up-and-down season is leaving clubs with more questions than answers,” ESPN wrote. “The buzz has shifted from him as a potential 1-1 to possibly falling out of the top 10, maybe even behind the red-hot Hurston Waldrep. In truth, I think Dollander’s range starts as high as No. 7 to Cincinnati and probably ends around here, maybe at No. 15 to the White Sox.”
After earning All-American and SEC Pitcher of the Year honors in a dominant 2022 campaign, Dollander was inconsistent this year for Tennessee. The Vols’ projected ace went from a 10-0 record and 2.39 ERA in his sophomore season to a 7-6 record and 4.75 ERA last season.
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Dollander entered the season as one of the top college pitching prospects in years but has fallen into the middle of the first round.
MLB.com’s most recent mock draft has Dollander falling even farther to Boston with the No. 14 pick in the MLB Draft.
“If Dollander were to get this far, there’s a good chance the Red Sox wouldn’t let him go by,” MLB wrote. “If he’s gone, or they pass on the arm, there’s talk that they like Miller from the high school hitter bucket and this is the first place Arizona outfielder Chase Davis’ name seriously comes up.”
Dollander is the only Tennessee player projected to go in the first 40 rounds of the MLB Draft (first round plus supplemental picks) but he’s not the only Vol that will leave college for professional baseball.
Pitchers Andrew Lindsey and Seth Halvorsen in addition to shortstop Maui Ahuna and utility man Jared Dickey will go in the early rounds of the 2023 MLB Draft. Teams could also selected third baseman Zane Denton, outfielder Griffin Merritt and RHP Hollis Fanning in the later rounds of the drafts.
The MLB Draft begins on July 9 and runs through July 11.
