Will Nate Snead be a starter or reliever for Tennessee baseball this season?

One of the bigger questions heading into the 2025 college baseball season for the reigning national champion Tennessee Volunteers is whether or not versatile right-handed pitcher Nate Snead will start games or come in from the bullpen.

And let’s make it abundantly clear from the top, he can and has done both at a high level.

“Honestly, anything. Coach is going to put me in any position he sees best fits and I’m going to go out there and do my job,” Snead told the media on Wednesday when asked what his expectations were for the year. “There’s not much of a role that I didn’t face last year that I couldn’t overcome, so it is whatever coach V [Tony Vitello] wants.”  

The 6-foot-2, 212-pound hurler began the 2024 campaign in a piggyback role on Sundays, sometimes pitching as many as five or six innings at a time. When Zander Sechrist locked down a weekend rotation spot, Snead shifted back to a true ‘stopper’ role in the bullpen. He was a guy the Vols would call on in any position – and inning – to get guys out in mostly high-leverage situations.  

“He is a guy who still carries the value that he had last year. He’s a fun loving kid that’s a great personality to having it dugout and in the locker room and then he switches, that switch turns on for him into game mode,” coach Tony Vitello said of Snead. “And he constantly wants the ball, he constantly wants to compete. He’s resilient physically so he always wants to be out there regardless of what day it is or what he did the day before. And so, he’s been a Swiss Army knife for us, not just last year but including in these scrimmages. So yeah, I think he’s capable of doing whatever we ask.”

Snead was a USA Baseball Collegiate National Team participant last summer after logging 75.1 innings in 2023 with a 10-2 record over 29 appearances and one [true] start. The power-throwing righty who reached triple digits often struck out 61, walked 26 and locked down six saves out of the bullpen.    

Due to Tennessee’s influx of new arms on the mound, Snead very well could begin the season in the weekend rotation. It wouldn’t be the worst idea – allowing freshman Tegan Kuhns or junior college arms such as Brandon Arvidson, Thomas Crabtree or Taner Wiggins time to catch up. Dylan Loy is a capable starting arm if needed, as is Michael Sharman, Ryan Combs and AJ Rusell (of course) when he’s cleared form injury and stretched back out.

What’s the key difference for Snead in regards to starting games or coming in from the bullpen?

“It’s a lot different honestly because you don’t know how long you’re going to be out there. For starting, I just want to go out there for as long as possible and it is more of a pace game now. I’m not trying to go out there and blowout in the first inning,” the hard-throwing righty continued. “Maintain your arm strength and maintain your endurance. Keeping the adrenaline there as much as possible, but honestly it has been a thing I’ve been working on all fall and in the spring [so far]. It’s going to be a big change, but I’m going to enjoy it.”  

Snead was named a second-team All-American and the No. 38 junior ahead of the 2025 season by Perfect Game. The pitcher was also marked at No. 69 in MLB.com’s top-100 draft prospects.

“I know I can handle any role like I did last year. Last year, we really didn’t know what I was going to do either,” Snead admitted. “Everything is different though – your routine is different. I you’re a starter, you are doing your routine all at once whereas if you’re a reliver, you’re doing everything before the game and then waiting. That’s honestly the only thing that changes but I like the change of pace.”

Either way, Snead is going to be one of the better pitchers on Tennessee’s roster this spring. He was instrumental in the Vols’ postseason run last year, tossing 142 pitches in Omaha across five games and eight innings while allowing just one run on four combined hits. Without Snead, Tennessee doesn’t win the College World Series.

Vitello knows his worth and will act accordingly throughout the year. It might just be a few different roles, as it was last season.  

“Part of it pertains to the draft and as I’ve said here, actually in this room probably an annoyingly amount of times [press conference setting], just because you play position X doesn’t mean they’re going to draft you to play that position,” the skipper reiterated. “So, pro ball can wait for all these guys. For right now, we have a very small window to be the very best 2025 Vols team we can be.

“For guys like Nate Snead, Dean Curley, it might require them to go outside of the norm and hit in a different spot in the order or pitch on a different day or pitch three different types of roles in one month. So, he’s a valuable asset for all those reasons and I think he’s a good enough teammate. He’ll be flexible with whatever we see fit for him.”

Tennessee opens the 2025 season at home against Hofstra on February 14.