Tennessee couldn’t make history by winning back-to-back national championships last month in Omaha.
But that doesn’t mean the Volunteers’ talent level wasn’t at a supreme level in 2025, and Day 1 of the Major League Baseball Draft proved that emphatically. On Sunday night in Atlanta, Tennessee set a program record with 4 first-round draft picks, capped with right-hander Marcus Phillips going 33rd overall to the Boston Red Sox. Phillips’s selection put the finishing touches on a historical start to the draft for Tennessee.
Left-hander Liam Doyle started the Vols’ draft parade by going No. 5 overall to the St. Louis Cardinals. Eight picks later, shortstop Gavin Kilen was taken by the San Francisco Giants with the 13th overall pick. Then at No. 20, the Milwaukee Brewers continued the UT party by taking 3rd baseman Andrew Fischer. Phillips completed the first-round quartet from Knoxville and set that program record that proved for all to see how talented the 2025 team was despite not going back-to-back in Omaha.
Naturally, the Tennessee baseball social media account celebrated the record-breaking draft achievement with this post on Sunday night:
The 4 former Tennessee stars are now headed their separate ways as they try to carve out their own niche at the major-league level. No matter what happens in the future though, the 4 are a part of Tennessee baseball history for what they were a part of at the 2025 draft.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
