Tennessee baseball is undergoing an overhaul on the mound this offseason with 20 pitchers entering the transfer portal and six more projected to begin their professional careers following next month’s MLB Draft.
One of the 20 Tennessee pitchers to enter the portal was freshman Ryler Smart. The left-handed pitcher found a new home in the portal this week, committing to SEC rival LSU. A top 200 prospect in the 2025 recruiting class, Smart redshirted his lone season at Tennessee due to an injury.
The Vols and Tigers have one of the SEC’s best rivalries and have been the nation’s two best programs in the 2020s. LSU has won two national championships under Jay Johnson in 2023 and 2025.
Tennessee has made the College World Series three times over that stretch, 2021, 2023 and 2024, while bringing home the program’s first ever national championship in 2024. The Vols have also won SEC Regular-Season and Tournament Championships in both 2022 and 2024.
The two teams have also faced off in a number of postseason matchups. Tennessee defeated LSU in the Knoxville Super Regional in 2021 before LSU twice defeated Tennessee in Omaha on its way to the 2023 national championship. The Vols got a bit of revenge a season later, knocking off the Tigers in the SEC Tournament Championship.
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Since 2021, Tennessee holds a 12-6 advantage against LSU in head-to-head matchups. Six of those 18 matchups happened in the postseason.
Smart was one of eight Tennessee pitchers who entered the transfer portal after not pitching 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.
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 pitchers to enter the portal include Smart, RHP Ryan Combs, RHP Tate Strickland, RHP Ben Martin, 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, RHP Austin Hunley, LHP Brayden Sharp and RHP Thomas Crabtree.
