PHILADELPHIA – For the fifth straight year, Tennessee had a player picked in the first round of the Major League Baseball Draft as sophomore pitcher Tegan Kuhns was selected with the 32nd overall pick by the St. Louis Cardinals on Saturday afternoon.
UT has now produced 11 total first rounders this decade (2020-pres.), which leads all SEC programs in that span.
The 2026 MLB Draft will continue and conclude tomorrow with rounds 5-20. Coverage of Day 2 can be found on MLB.com, MLB.TV and MLB+ starting at 11:30 a.m. ET.
Fans can also see every pick of this year’s draft on the MLB Draft Tracker.
More information on Tennessee’s 2026 draft picks can be found below.
DAY 1 (ROUNDS 1-4)
RHP Tegan Kuhns – St. Louis Cardinals – First Round (CB-A) – No. 32 Overall
Kuhns is the fifth Tennessee pitcher to be selected in the first round this decade, joining the likes of Liam Doyle (2025), Marcus Phillips (2025), Chase Dollander (2023) and Garrett Crochet (2020).
A draft eligible sophomore, Kuhns had a breakout 2026 campaign, cementing himself as the ace of Tennessee’s staff while earning All-SEC second team honors after leading the Vols with 106 strikeouts and ranking second on the team and eighth in the SEC with a 3.56 ERA.
Kuhns posted five wins in his 15 appearances (14 starts) and boasted an impressive 1.19 WHIP after allowing just 16 walks over 80.1 innings pitched. His 6.62 strikeout-to-walk ratio was third best in the conference while his 1.78 walks per nine innings mark was tied for the second lowest in the league.
When he was on, there were few pitchers in the country with the ability to control a game and shut down an opposing lineup like Kuhns in 2026. The hard-throwing right-hander was named the SEC Pitcher of the Week twice after dominant performances in wins over No. 13 Alabama and No. 4 Texas. Against the Crimson Tide, Kuhns tossed an eight-inning, complete-game shutout, which was the first of his career.
Two weeks later, the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, native, put together an even more impressive outing against the Longhorns, striking out a career-high 15 batters to tie the SEC single-game high for 2026. The 15 punchouts were the most by a UT pitcher since June 4, 2005, when James Adkins totaled 15 versus Winthrop in the NCAA Knoxville Regional. Kuhns allowed just four hits and one walk over seven shutout innings to earn his fourth win of the season.
