Tennessee Baseball Preview: How the Volunteers stack up in 2022
The Tennessee Volunteers baseball team comes into 2022 with high expectations following a historic 2021 campaign. Tennessee, which comes in at No. 19 in the preseason D1Baseball Top 25, went 50-18 last season and punched a coveted ticket to the College World Series in Omaha for the first time in 16 years.
Tennessee was ultimately eliminated in Omaha following consecutive losses to Virginia and Texas, but this season, the Volunteers are in position to be a serious competitor in the SEC East. Before the program opens up its 2022 season on Friday against Georgia Southern, On3 spoke with Ryan Schumpert to preview the roster and team expectations. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Ryan Schumpert is a Tennessee beat writer for Rocky Top Insider. He can be reached on Twitter at @RSchump00.
What would be your projected weekend rotation and who fits in as a midweek starter?
This is an interesting one because Tennessee’s already had two pretty serious injuries in its pitching staff. One is Blade Tidwell, who’s out indefinitely. It’s going to be a while with some shoulder stiffness that has led to shoulder soreness. Not a combination that I’d seen before, but it’s not going to require surgery. It’s just kind of wait-and-see mode, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be anytime soon that he’s going to pitch. Without him, I think we’re going to see see Tennessee’s weekend rotation is going to be Chase Dollander, Chase Burns and Camden Sewell.
Chase Dollander was a transfer from Georgia Southern, a Freshmen All-American last year. Chase Burns was a top 20 or 25 national recruit from Beech High School. He’s a guy that Tennessee was just thrilled that he made it to campus. Tennessee was really afraid he would go professional baseball, but after he didn’t get taken in the first two rounds of the MLB Draft, he decided on Tennessee. And then Camden Sewell was one of Tennessee’s go-to arms out of the bullpen last year. Probably the one it relied on second most. I think in the second half of SEC play, going into Omaha, he had like a 0.5 ERA. He was just fantastic for the second half the season last year, so I think those guys will be the weekend starters. The midweek starter — I think with the injuries, it’s kind of going to be by committee. It’s going to be different guys having opportunities. Hollis Fanning is a guy that I think is on the edge of helping them in the bullpen in the weekend. Just a redshirt freshman now, he potentially has a future as a starter. He’s a guy I could see getting some some starts in the midweek, but like I said, I guess that’d be a lot of by committee there.
The pitching staff might look a little different due to those injuries, so who do you expect Tennessee to rely on out of the bullpen?
Seth Halverson is the other main pitcher that’s injured, and he was going to be a bullpen guy I think. He transferred from Missouri and was their ace last year, but it was obviously not a very good Missouri team. But he has really high-end stuff, but the consistency — he really struggled for the second or third time through the lineup at Missouri, when he couldn’t just rely on that upper-90s fastball. I think he’ll be one of Tennessee’s go-to guys when he gets back healthy.
Redmond Walsh is another important name. He’s the John Fulkerson of the baseball team. I think he’s going into his sixth year. He’s a couple saves away from becoming Tennessee’s all-time save leader. Soft-throwing lefty, does a little bit of everything. He’s been the closer at times, but he fell out of that role last year. I’m not sure if he’ll really be in that exact same spot, but he’s going to be a big piece of the bullpen.
And then the third guy I’ll say that I think has a super high ceiling and I’ll be fascinated to watch is Ben Joyce. He’s a junior college transfer, actually came in last year. Had Tommy John surgery in the fall of 2020, so he’s just getting back. Really hasn’t thrown a whole lot at any level, but he throws upper-90s, has really, really good stuff. Really high-end talent. I think the consistency and the command is kind of going to be the question there. But he’s a guy that I think has a really high ceiling and if he puts it all together, it kind of changes the dynamic of Tennessee’s pitching staff.
Moving over to the offensive side, who will Tennessee rely on to power its offense this season?
They lost a ton of guys from the infield last year. Tennessee’s one, two and three hitters were its shortstop, second baseman and third baseman, and all three of those guys are gone to professional baseball. Their top two catchers last year are gone as well, one to professional baseball and one to graduation. So, in the infield, it is going to be 100% new guys.
I think you’re going to see a ton of tinkering with the lineups, especially in the middle infield in nonconference play. There’s going to be a lot of different guys that are going to have opportunities there. Cortland Lawson is a sophomore who only had 14 at-bats last year, and it seems like he is really taking the reins at the shortstop job. Then Christian Moore is a true freshman from New York that will make an impact. He’s a shortstop, really a middle infielder, and I think he’ll probably play second base this year. He’s been really, really impressive in the fall and the preseason with his bat. Again, I think both of the guys are probably going to have to fight it out in nonconference play, but they seem to have some separation.
Then in the outfield, as many guys as they lost in the infield, Tennessee returns about its top five contributors, really top six, but one of them — Evan Russell — is moving the catcher. And I think there’s gonna be a lot of pressure, especially earlier in the year, on Drew Gilbert and Jordan Beck. Those were two of Tennessee’s top guys last year. Drew Gilbert is kind of the mad man on the team. Hit the walk-off postseason grand slam against Wright State, I think everyone knows him for that. But he helped lead Tennessee last year, was second in RBIs. Then Jordan Beck is a guy that is going to be in the MLB in five years. He’s just a complete modern-baseball outfielder with big time power. A lot of strikeouts, but he led Tennessee in homers a year ago. Really, really strong arm in right field. It’s definitely going to be his last year at Tennessee and probably going to be a top three or top four round pick in the MLB Draft this summer.
Did anything stand out as a glaring weakness from last season, and how or who do you expect to help fix the issue?
I think one thing that lingered last season, then down the stretch it showed up more was just they didn’t have great pitching depth. Their bullpen only had about four arms that they really relied on heavily. They had a fifth and a sixth guy they would throw some, but it was a very heavy load on those four guys. Really, Camden Sewell and Sean Hunley. Those two guys threw tons of innings out of the bullpen. Not Kevin Kopps levels but I think Kevin Kopps, Landon Sims and Sean Hunley, in that order, threw the most innings out of the bullpen last year in the SEC. They were very reliant on those few guys.
Before the injuries, I think they had really addressed that well. I think they had much better pitching depth last year, but some of the guys that were younger weren’t great down the stretch. That said, I think those guys — Kirby Connell and Will Mabrey — are two guys that stand out there. They were right on the edge last year. Could give Tennessee good innings at times. Connell was really good for the first half of SEC play and then faded the second half. Both those guys are young. Drew Beam is another freshman that I think could contribute. I’ll be really interested to see him in nonconference play because Tennessee has been high on him this preseason, but obviously you never know until they really put it out there. And Mark McLaughlin would be the last guy that was kind of in that same boat. He was a sophomore last year. Was kind of like Connell, good for the first half of SEC play, then struggled the second half and his role kind of diminished.
What’s the relative ceiling for this team, and where do you see them finishing in SEC play?
I think in SEC play, the ceiling is second in the East. I mean, naturally, this Tennessee schedule — it is significantly harder this year than last year. Last year, they had it work out really well, where they played most of the best teams on their schedule at home in Arkansas, Vanderbilt and Florida. Then, they played a much lighter road schedule. Not the case at all this year.
This year, they go to both the Mississippi schools, they go to Florida, they go to Vanderbilt. Kentucky is really the only road SEC series that you look at and think Tennessee is going to be favored to win. So, the record is definitely going to take a step back. Tennessee, Florida and Georgia I think are all going to be pretty similar, as the preseason voting seemed to indicate. They were all behind Vanderbilt in the SEC East.
Look, if they can get some of the pitching healthy, I think this is a team that can get back to Omaha because I think they have the pitching and I think they have talent in the lineup. Now, it’s a lot of unproven talent, so it’s going to be interesting to see. When you look at the regular season, I think the goal should be to host a Regional and get one of those top 16 spots. I’d be surprised if Tennessee is back in the top eight, in line to host a Super Regional, without any help from someone upsetting someone that first weekend in the tournament. I don’t think Tennessee has quite the ceiling as last year. But if they get the arms together, they’ll have a pitching staff that should be really, really strong and a team that is certainly capable of getting back to Omaha.
Who would be your early pick for team MVP?
I think I’m going to go with Evan Russell, just from the value standpoint. That’s one I touched on a minute ago. That’s going to be one of the most interesting dynamics of the season. Tennessee lost both its catchers from last year. They brought in Matt McCormick, a transfer from West Virginia, a real strong bat. He basically gets here in the fall and decides he doesn’t want to play baseball. So, Tennessee was straight out of luck and didn’t have have anyone. Evan Russell, who hadn’t played catcher since he was in high school, came to Tennessee and didn’t really know what he was going to play. He eventually settled in the outfield started at left field last year. He decided for his last season, to try to help his pro stock, he was going to try and help the team and play catcher. I don’t think he’s going to be a lead behind the plate by any means, and he may not be throwing out a ton of guys, but from what I’ve seen, I think he’s gonna be serviceable. It doesn’t seem like maybe as big as an adjustment as I expected it to be. As important as that position is, and with how little Tennessee has, I think Russell is going to be invaluable.
People have obviously seen what he can do with his bat — that’s what I’ll be fascinated to see with him this year. His first three years, he was basically the exact same player. He would hit right around .270 or .275, very average power hitter, six or seven home runs per season. And then last year, I don’t know what got into the guy. He was sitting under .200 for most season. He was hitting under .200 entering the game against LSU in which he hit three home runs, and he was hitting under .200 in the game against Vanderbilt, where he hit three home runs. He ended up hitting about 12 or 13. About double that he had at any point of his career. I’ll be fascinated to see if he regresses back to the mean a little bit this year. And really, I think that’d be good for Tennessee because I think Tennessee needs that contact hitting more than they’re going to need the power from him.
Who would be your early pick for newcomer of the year?
I think it’s going to be Chase Burns, the freshmen pitcher from Nashville. He’s been remarkably impressive when I’ve watched him. Like I said, I think he was going to be a weekend starter before the injuries. With the injuries, it’s a no doubt he’s going to be a weekend starter for Tennessee. I think he’s going to be the Blade Tidwell of this year’s team, where the talent is going to be evident right away. He probably will go through some rough patches, especially at first half of SEC play, adjusting to the life at just a completely different level. But when the second half of SEC play rolls around, when we get into April, when we get into May, he has as much talent if not more talent than any player on this Tennessee team. I think he’s going to be hitting a stride then, and I think he’s going to be really effective for the Vols.