Tony Vitello expresses support for Tennessee players awaiting MLB Draft decisions

Tennessee may have been eliminated from the College World Series early, but the action still continues for a handful of Volunteers. Tennessee’s talent roster has a group of payers who are now eyeing the next level and will go straight from Omaha to prepare for the upcoming 2023 MLB Draft.

Players like Maui Ahuna, Jared Dickey, and Andrew Lindsay participated in the MLB Combine directly after the College World Series to showcase their skills. And on ‘SportsTalk’ with John Wilkerson and Vince Ferrara, Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello explained how himself and his staff support their players who are embarking on their professional journeys.

“Yeah we say it all the time to the kids that we can help, and we have helped, and we even used specific examples of former players probably to the point where it sounds like we’re used car salesmen,” Vitello said. “But we kind of made up our mind when we first got to Knoxville, we don’t really want to stand in the way of anyone’s pro career.”

The proof is in the pudding for Vitello, as he used past examples of past drafted players to detail what role the Tennessee coaching staff plays in the draft process.

“Sean Hunley’s a perfect example, usually when you get to about the 19th round you can kind of work with those scouts and say hey we don’t want to lose this guy. But even Sean, he’s wanting to go out, he’s certainly valuable to us but we helped push that thing forward and he’s got a great chance to make it to the big leagues,” Vitello explained. “He’s killing it like a lot of other guys in pro ball right now.”

Hunley was selected by the Tampa Bay Rays with the No. 581 overall pick in the 19th round of the 2021 MLB Draft. But even for first-round draft picks like former No. 11 overall pick Garrett Crochet the Tennessee skipper is still involved in the process.

“So whether it’s in the first round taking a bunch of calls for Garrett Crochet, and I’m sure his advisors and family do that too, we take those calls and try and let these guys know that we think our guys when they come out of our program they’re ready at the very least regardless of how many games they won or action they got on the field,” Vitello said.

The Vols currently have four players ranked on MLB.com’s top 250 prospects list ahead of the 2023 draft, and it will definitely be intriguing to see where they land once the draft begins on July 9.