Breaking: Vols sign in Louisville highly-touted gateway prospect in a blockbuster deal.
The portal’s top-ranked player
The Vols welcomed highly-touted gateway prospect and Louisville transfer infielder Gavin Kilen after Tennessee strengthened its pitching staff on Tuesday with the announcement that Tanner Franklin, a transfer from Kennesaw State, will be attending UT. D1 Baseball ranks the No. 1 portal prospect, who made his decision known on Instagram.
Kilen hit.339 in his sophomore campaign the previous year and hit nine home runs to earn third-team All-ACC honors. In several offensive categories, including hits, doubles, and total bases (124), he led the Cardinals.
The 22 doubles were the seventh-best total in program history and led the ACC. Kilen uses his right hand to throw rather than his left, and he makes nine mistakes in nine games this season, giving him a.951 fielding %. I’m partially kidding, but he’s a terrific addition to the Volunteer program because he also has the bat flip down.
Kilen, an SS/second baseman prospect out of high school, was listed as the No. 1 player in the cycle out of Wisconsin, the ninth-ranked SS, and the 55th-ranked player overall. Last season, he started 52 of the 53 games in which the Cardinals used him at shortstop.
After joining the Cardinals, he had a relatively instant impact at Louisville, but it was during the previous season that he truly came of age. He started 38 games in his first season, eight at second base and thirty at shortstop. After hitting.265 with nine doubles, a triple, and eighteen RBIs in his first year with Louisville, he saw a notable increase in production in his second year on campus.
Due to the certainty of Christian Moore, Blake Burke, Billy Amick, Dylan Dreiling, and Kavares Tears being selected in the MLB draft, Tennessee is planning to almost entirely restructure its lineup. Given that the Vols will probably have to fight their way out of the MLB Draft for several of the aforementioned prospects, UT has plenty of options with Kilen, Antigua, Curly, and a nationally rated No. 1 recruiting class that includes infielders Trey Snyder (ranked fifth in UT’s class), Manuelle Marin (ranked seventh in UT’s class), Ty Southisene (ranked third in UT’s class), Chris Newstrom, and Arnold Abernathy (ranked fifth in UT’s class), among several others. But let’s get back to Curley. In this photo, he is playing for the USA National Collegiate Team and smashing a home run.
The Vols will probably bring in many infielders to see who goes to the draft, who succeeds, and who fails, as Tennessee also lost backup infielders Bradke Lohry and Robin Villeneuve to the transfer portal.
Curley and Antigua are both capable of playing shortstop or second base, and Curley has the physique, arm, and reflexes to play the hot corner as well.
Since prospects had until July 1st to register their names into the portal, expect a plethora of new transfer adds in the relatively near future. In the high school class, the Vols are also adding a number of elite pitching talents, but once more, the Draft will present a challenge.
After winning the National Championship, Tennessee is casting its net wider in terms of recruiting prospects. Kilen and the program could see a couple more top players come this offseason; Cannon Peebles was a highly regarded acquisition last season.
