Tennessee baseball has a new highest drafted player of the Tony Vitello era. The St. Louis Cardinals drafted Tennessee’s Liam Doyle with the fifth pick of the 2025 MLB Draft Sunday night.
Tennessee infielder Christian Moore was the previous highest rated Vol selected under Vitello with the Los Angeles Angels selecting him with the No. 8 pick in the 2024 MLB Dradr. Chase Dollander was the previous highest rated Vol pitcher selected under Vitello, going to the Colorado Rockies with the ninth pick in the 2023 draft.
The flamethrower was the second pitcher off the board in the 2025 MLB Draft behind only LSU’s Kade Anderson.
Doyle spent just one season at Tennessee after spending his freshman year at Coastal Carolina and sophomore year at Ole Miss. The New Hampshire native made the most of his lone season at Tennessee earning First Team All-SEC honors, SEC Pitcher of the Year honors and becoming the fourth Volunteer finalist for the Golden Spikes Award.
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The left-handed ace posted a 10-4 record, 3.20 ERA and 0.99 WHIP while striking out 164 batters in 95.2 innings pitched. Doyle’s fastball was the sports best during the 2025 season and he was unhittable when he successfully threw his off-speed pitches for strikes, especially early in counts.
Doyle was a part of a pair of no-hitters in his lone season at Tennessee, starting combined ho-hitters against St. Bonaventure and another against Texas A&M (7 innings). He was also dominant in SEC outings against Ole Miss, LSU and Vanderbilt.
Doyle built on to his legacy in the postseason by winning the Knoxville Regional Most Outstanding Player. Over the course of the regional, Doyle pitched nine full innings, allowing just one run on four hits while striking out 16 batters.
The 6-foot-2, 230-pound Doyle was the latest success story for Tennessee baseball in the transfer portal. He was a solid weekend starter at Ole Miss as a sophomore, posting a 3-4 record, 5.73 ERA and 1.25 WHIP in 55 innings pitched. But Doyle’s took things to a completely different level this season and projects to be one of the top picks in this summer’s MLB Draft.
