The regular season is winding down for Tennessee baseball as the Vols welcome rival Vanderbilt to Lindsey Nelson Stadium this weekend for their penultimate regular season series.
But the MLB Draft will be here in just over two months as draft boards become more solidified. The Athletic’s Keith Law released his updated first round mock draft earlier this week including two current Tennessee players and a pair of Volunteer commits.
Current Vols Liam Doyle and Gavin Kilen project as first round picks while commits Billy Carlson and Steele Hall also project to go in the first round.
Law has the Los Angeles Angels selecting Doyle with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft amidst the left-handed pitcher’s brilliant junior year. Doyle’s posted a 2.39 ERA and 0.84 WHIP while striking out an incredible 115 batters in 64.2 innings pitched this season.
“There’s been more smoke around them taking one of the two college lefties, as both appear likely to be able to throw in the big-league bullpen in the second half of this season,” Law wrote.
The Angels are a fan of Tony Vitello’s program, drafting Ben Joyce in the 2022 MLB Draft and Christian Moore in the first round of the 2024 MLB Draft. Law’s last mock draft back in March had Doyle going with the first overall pick.
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The mock draft has the Baltimore Orioles selecting Tennessee middle infielder Gavin Kilen with the 19th pick. A Louisville transfer, Kilen has put up big numbers in his lone season in Knoxville despite battling a hamstring injury for a good stretch of SEC play.
Entering this weekend’s series against Vanderbilt, Kilen is hitting .388 with 13 home runs, 25 extra-base hits and 33 RBIs. Kilen is a fantastic bat-to-ball player, posting a 7.8% strikeout rate. Kilen’s jump in power this season while maintaining the low strikeout rate is quite impressive. His walk rate is also slightly up to 12.8% this season.
“This just seems way too obvious a match — a player with Kilen’s performance and batted-ball data shouldn’t even get this far, and the Orioles typically pounce on guys like that,” Law wrote.
Tennessee commit Billy Carlson is projected to go with the eighth pick to the Toronto Blue Jays. A Corona, California native, Carlson will almost certainly not make it to campus if selected in the top 10 picks of the draft.
Law projects fellow Tennessee commit Steele Hall to go to the Atlanta Braves with the 22nd pick in the 2025 MLB Draft. A Trussville, Alabama native, Hall is a right-handed hitting shortstop.
The mock draft just includes the first 27 picks in the draft while listing a few other names to watch. Tennessee infielder Dean Curley was in that group of other players to watch for.
