Tennessee baseball is home to one of the most productive freshmen in the country this season. Trent Grindlinger, a highly-recruited catcher, has been on a tear in his first collegiate season.
Following the Vols’ midweek win over Belmont on Wednesday, the right-handed slugger is hitting for a .384 average with eight home runs and 25 RBI. This comes in 36 appearances, 29 starts and 112 at-bats.
A deeper dive into Grindlinger’s numbers shows just how good he’s been. Ahead of the win over the Bruins, Joe Doyle highlighted this on his X account. He noted that Grindlinger is the only hitter, regardless of class, with an overall whiff rate under 15% and a hard-hit rate above 60%.
There is currently just ONE hitter in college baseball with an overall whiff rate under 15% and a hard-hit rate north of 60%.
AdvertisementThat would be Tennessee FRESHMAN Trent Grindlinger.
He’s draft-eligible in 2027. Potential Top 10 pick. pic.twitter.com/jJxTXQnZqk
— Joe Doyle (@JoeDoyleMiLB) May 12, 2026
More From RTI: Everything Josh Elander Said After Tennessee Baseball Capped Perfect Midweek Season
Grindlinger will be eligible for the 2027 MLB Draft. This means he will be returning to college next season as a draft-eligible sophomore. Doyle is already high on the catcher in the cycle, as well. He tabbed him as a potential top 10 pick.
There’s still a critical stretch of the 2026 season to play, though. This weekend, the Vols will meet Oklahoma in Oklahoma City for a three-game stand. This will begin on Thursday and go through Saturday to round out the regular season.
“Just always a good program,” Tennessee head coach Josh Elander said about Oklahoma. “Again, they’re coached at a very high level. I was recruited by Skip (Johnson) back in the day when he was at a different school. The offense is aggressive. They steal a bunch of bases, and then again, too, they have some transfers. They move some guys in, do some different things, but we’ll completely dive into it as we go. But this time of year, it’s going to be a good opponent on the road in the SEC. So each flavor is a little different, but we’ll see what we got a little bit more tomorrow.”
Then, the SEC Tournament will be held as a single-elimination format beginning on May 19 and running through May 24. Following the tournament, the NCAA Tournament bracket will be revealed.
