Tennessee RHP Ryan Combs entered the transfer portal Friday after spending just one season in Knoxville, KnoxNews Mike Wilson first reported.
Combs is the younger brother of former Tennessee pitcher Aaron Combs who was one of the Vols’ best pitchers on their 2024 national championship team. Ryan Combs was a junior college transfer who spent the 2025 season at Tennessee.
The 6-foot-3, 184-pound right-hander entered his junior season with high expectations and impressed early in the season before struggling and seeing his opportunities dwindle. Combs posted a 7.36 ERA AND 1.64 WHIP in 13 appearances and 11 innings pitched. He faced just one batter in SEC play, allowing a hit.
Combs in the 26th Tennessee player to enter the transfer portal in the last month and the 20th pitcher. The numbers are so vast in part because of the upcoming roster limits due to the passing of the House Settlement.
Eight of the 20 pitchers didn’t pitch in a game for Tennessee this past season. Rising junior left hander Dylan Loy was a serious loss for the Vols, throwing 20.1 innings in SEC play last season. The 19 other transfer pitchers combined to throw 7.1 innings in conference play.
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The Vols project to return just four pitchers from their 2024 team in RHP Tegan Kuhns, RHP Brayden Krenzel, RHP Anson Seibert and RHP Nic Abraham. Kuhns and Krenzel each had key roles as freshmen in 2025 while Abraham pitched just 4.1 innings. Seibert was the highest rated pitcher in Tennessee’s 2024 recruiting class but missed the entirety of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery last summer.
Tennessee has landed eight players in the transfer portal to this point in Rice’s Blaine Brown, Virginia’s Henry Ford, Big South Pitcher of the Year Clay Edmondson (UNC Asheville), SoCon Pitcher of the Year Brady Frederick (ETSU), Kennesaw State’s RHP Bo Rhudy and MIT’s RHP Mason Estrada and Bowling Green utility man Garrett Wright and Bowling Green two-way star DJ Newman.
The Vols will still have to survive the MLB Draft to get Ford, Edmondson, Estrada and Newman to campus. Ford and Edmondson are particularly strong draft risks.
The complete list of Tennessee players to enter the transfer portal this offseason include Combs, RHP Tate Strickland, RHP Ben Martin, INF Dane Morrow, C Brooks Wright, RHP Austin Breedlove, LHP Andrew Behnke, RHP Beau Revord, LHP Michael Sharman, RHP Andrew DuMont, RHP Tanner Wiggins, LHP Brayden May, LHP Luke Payne, LHP Dane Bjorn, RHP Stratton Scott, RHP JJ Garcia, LHP Dylan Loy, RHP Bryson Thacker, infielder Robinson Martin, RHP Austin Hunley, OF Colby Backus, LHP Brayden Sharp, RHP Thomas Crabtree, RHP Ryler Smart, infielder Alex Perry and 1B Jack Jones.
