Tennessee baseball star left-handed pitched Liam Doyle was selected No. 5 overall by the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round of the 2025 MLB Draft on Sunday night. Doyle is the highest-drafted Vol of the Tony Vitello era and the highest-drafted Vol since Nick Senzel was picked No. 2 by the Cincinnati Reds in 2016.

The No. 5 overall pick in this year’s draft was assigned a slot value of $8,130,000. The estimation provides a ballpark range for the amount Doyle could sign for in the coming weeks.

Doyle is the seventh first-round pick under Vitello and the third pitcher to be selected in the opening round. Former Vol right-handed pitcher Chase Dollander was taken No. 9 overall by the Colorado Rockies in the 2023 Draft, while former Vols southpaw Garrett Crochet went No. 11 to the Chicago White Sox in the 2020 Draft. Former Vols Drew Gilbert, Jordan Beck, Christian Moore and Blake Burke were also drafted in the first round after playing for Vitello.

Moore was previously the highest-drafted player under Vitello as the No. 8 to the Angels in last year’s draft. Moore beat out Dollander by one pick. Crochet was Vitello’s first first-round pick.

Doyle won the SEC Pitcher of the Year this past season in his lone campaign on Rocky Top. The former Coastal Carolina and Ole Miss transfer was also named to the All-SEC First Team by the league’s coaches. Doyle is the third Vol in program history to win SEC Pitcher of the Year and the second under Vitello. Luke Hocheavor garnered the recognition in 2005 before Dollander earned the award in 2022.

The Derry, N.H. native finished his junior season 10-4 with an ERA of 3.20 in 19 appearances, 17 of which were starts. Doyle led the country with a Tennessee program record 164 strikeouts at the time UT’s season ended at Arkansas in the super regionals of the NCAA Tournament. He also led, or was tied, for the SEC lead in wins (10), WHIP (0.99) and strikeouts per nine innings (15.43), all of which ranked in the top 20 nationally.

Doyle became just the third player in program history to be named a finalist for both the Golden Spikes Award and the Dick Howser Trophy. UT legends Todd Helton (1995) and Chris Burke (2001) were the only other two to do so.

Doyle is the 44th Tennessee player that has been drafted since Vitello took over in 2018. The Volunteers entered this year’s draft averaging just over six picks per year, and have produced at least seven selections in each of the last four drafts. The Vols had a program record 10 drafted in 2022 and eight selections in each of the last two drafts.

The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked Doyle as his No. 2 overall draft prospect. Here was Law’s scouting report of Doyle.

“Doyle transferred for the second time in as many years, moving from Mississippi to Tennessee (after starting his career at Coastal Carolina), and picking up some serious velocity along the way. He spent the spring of 2025 dominating hitters with his 96-99 fastball, striking out 42.6 percent of batters he faced. He throws the heater more than 60 percent of the time, and hitters just don’t hit it — they whiff over 40 percent of the time they swing at it, even though he’s throwing it so often they can frequently just guess fastball and be correct. He backs it up with a plus splitter up to 89 mph and an above-average slider in the low to mid 80s, both of which miss plenty of bats, with the splitter a weapon he’ll use against hitters on both sides of the plate. He works in the zone a ton, walking 8 percent of batters he’s faced, and isn’t afraid to attack hitters on the inner third. The only knocks on Doyle seem to be the lack of track record prior to this year and the fact that the delivery is unorthodox, although he repeats the heck out of it and I don’t see a big red flag beyond the fact that he throws really hard. If his command and control hold up against better competition, he could be a No. 2 starter, and I wouldn’t hesitate to start him at least in Double A.”