Tennessee baseball landed a pair of former Vols on Kiley McDaniel’s Top 100 MLB 2024 Prospects rankings for ESPN on Wednesday.
Former Vol outfielder Drew Gilbert is the highest-ranked major league prospect from ESPN’s rankings landing at No. 39. Gilbert began his career in the Houston Astros’ organization but was sent to the New York Mets’ organization at the 2023 trade deadline this past August in a package that brought star pitcher Justin Verlander in for the Astros’ ALCS run.
“Gilbert hit 18 homers in 2023, mostly in Double-A and was a co-headliner along with Ryan Clifford (who is also on this list) in the Mets’ return in last summer’s Justin Verlander trade,” McDaniel wrote. “It seemed absurd to me at draft time that Gilbert wasn’t thought of as a slam-dunk good big leaguer — likely a low-end starter — and now he might be that as soon as late 2024 for a franchise that is suddenly flush with upper minors/young major league position players.”
Gilbert is one of the top up-and-coming prospects because of what he did following the trade. The former Vol hit six home runs, 20 RBIs, and six stolen bases with a .241 batting average across 60 games with the Astros’ Double-A team. Gilbert’s switch to the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies certainly shook up his hitting, though. Gilbert took off for six home runs and 21 RBIs with a .325 batting average in just 35 games with the Rumble Ponies. The former Vol’s work in the minor league has helped propel him into a potential 2024 big leaguer.
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The second former Vol in McDaniel’s Top 100 ranking is Colorado pitcher Chase Dollander. The Rockies took Dollander with the ninth pick in the draft after a strong two-year career in Knoxville.
“In his draft spring, I spotted a delivery issue and his stuff was a little more hittable — his locations were a little worse, and he was facing hitters hunting certain pitches for the first time,” McDaniel wrote for ESPN. “The core things were still there: a plus mid-90s fastball that works at the top of the zone, a plus-flashing slider and a curveball and changeup that flashed above average to go with good control and starter command upside. As with most amateur power pitchers, his command execution comes and goes a bit, but the components are here to project average command. Now we’ll see if he can make some subtle tweaks and continue progressing in pro ball before having to tackle Coors Field.”
Dollander did not pitch in 2023 after signing with the Rockies as a Top 10 pick.
While ESPN has two former Vols in their Top 100 prospects list, three appeared on MLB Pipeline’s recent list in fairly different order. MLB Pipeline has Dollander at No. 52 as the highest-ranked Vol, followed by Gilbert one spot lower at No. 53 in the rankings. The lone VFL that MLB Pipeline had that ESPN did not was Colorado Rockies outfielder Jordan Beck, who landed at No. 81 in the rankings.
To view Kiley McDaniel’s full list for ESPN, click here.
