We’re less than a day away from the 2026 MLB Draft, which is set to take place on Saturday and Sunday from the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Day 1 will begin at 1:00 p.m. with Round 1-4, while Day 2 will begin at 11:30 a.m. ET with Rounds 5-20.
There is expected to be a ton of Tennessee activity throughout the weekend with current and future Volunteers hearing their names called. But we’re just going to look at the top prospect from Tennessee’s 2026 squad here: Tegan Kuhns.
The 6-foot-3 right-hander from Gettysburg, PA, was the ace of Tennessee’s pitching staff this past season. He made 15 appearances with 14 starts, and earned All-SEC Second Team honors after the season. He set career highs in wins (5), innings (81.0), and strikeouts (106) as a sophomore. Kuhns finished the year with a 3.56 ERA, which ranked eighth in the SEC. He also finished third in the conference in strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.62) and second in walks per nine innings (1.78).
Back in May, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel tagged Kuhns at the No. 24 to the Seattle Mariners. McDaniel now has Kuhns projected to go No. 34 to the Pittsburgh Pirates as the 32nd-ranked player in his final mock draft on Friday.
“Kuhns likely goes in the 30s, and one evaluator said Kuhns reminds him of George Kirby; that’s the ceiling if the development team can optimize Kuhns and get a little lucky,” McDaniel writes.
For reference, Kirby is a 6-foot-4 28-year-old right hander for the Seattle Mariners who made his MLB debut in 2022 after being selected in the first round of the 2019 draft. He was named an All-Star during the 2023 season.
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The other big Tennessee name to know is a player who hasn’t played for the Volunteers yet. Jared Grindlinger, the younger brother of Tennessee catcher Trent Grindlinger, is projected to go No. 6 overall to the Kansas City Chiefs in McDaniel’s Friday mock. Jared Grindlinger committed to Tennessee back and April and was one of the biggest early recruiting wins of Josh Elander’s tenure as head coach. But landing Grindlinger’s commitment was just half of the battle of trying to get the talented California native to campus.
Tennessee views Grindlinger as a true two-way who can both play in the outfield and is a left-handed pitcher, while McDaniel has him tagged as a right fielder and left-handed pitcher.
For more on where Tennessee Baseball’s players and commits land in MLB Draft rankings before the big event this weekend, click here.
