With the fifth overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft, Tennessee baseball left-handed pitcher Liam Doyle was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals.
As Doyle became the first Vol off the board in a stacked class for UT, his head coach, Tony Vitello, watched in person on the set of the MLB Network. As a guest analyst for the opening day of the draft, Vitello was able to give his thoughts on Doyle during the broadcast.
“However it happened, I love it for him,” Vitello said on Doyle being picked fifth overall. “What a phenomenal kid to be around, and I think he has a bright future on the mound. And here’s one reason why, last year, when he was pitching at Mississippi, he would often just kind of beat himself. Guys wouldn’t really get to him, he would run out of steam because he was flat-out out of shape, and also, he’d run out of pitches… He would run out of pitches because he didn’t throw enough strikes. This year, he loses 19 pounds of body fat, gets to work, gets in shape, throws a ton of strikes.
“Two of the things that showed up this year, oftentimes, other teams had his grips. Just like in pro ball, guys will look for that stuff. The other thing was again, that ‘Boston Strong’ spilled over into a little too strong sometimes. As he continues to evolve and mature, eventually, hitters are just going to have to flat out beat Liam Doyle and that is not going to be very easy to do because he’s got phenomenal stuff and is an unreal competitor.”
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The desk of analysts followed up to ask Vitello what the conversation was like to get Doyle into shape and to lose nearly 20 pounds. The Vols coach deflected to sing the praise of Director of Baseball Sports Performance Quentin Eberhardt.
“Quentin Eberhardt was our guy, and if you would’ve saw August and September when they first report to school, you would’ve thought this kid may transfer out of this place. It’s not going to work,” Vitello said. “… He bowed up to our strength coach and Q and he now are best of friends because of the conditioning level that Liam is in. And he had to work for it. It’s a great story for kids that are out there. Everybody has got something to work at and, again, even though he was a good pitcher, he attacked his weaknesses and he elevated his status.”
Doyle spent just one season at Tennessee after spending his freshman year at Coastal Carolina and his sophomore year at Ole Miss. He dominated in his lone season with the Vols while being named to the First Team All-SEC squad and taking home SEC Pitcher of the Year.
With the Vols, Doyle notched a 10-4 record, 3.20 ERA and 0.99 WHIP while striking out 164 batters in 95.2 innings pitched. This successful season behind one of the best fastballs in the sport has resulted in him now going No. 5 overall. This makes him the highest pick since Vitello took over the program in 2018.
He’s projected to be just the first of multiple pitchers from Tennessee’s staff selected in the draft, as well. Fellow starter Marcus Phillips and bullpen arms Nate Snead, AJ Russell, Tanner Franklin and Brandon Arvidson are all top 250 prospects who are likely to be picked.
