Rocky Top Runs the Breakout: 12 Former Vols Headline MLB’s Premier Prospect Showcase

PHEONIX, AZ - Tennessee’s pipeline to the MLB is unmatched. This weekend, the whole country gets to see it.

The World Baseball Classic final barely had time to clear the building before the next wave of talent took the field.

MLB’s Spring Breakout series returns Thursday for its third consecutive installment, and by the time the final pitch is thrown Sunday afternoon in Mesa, Arizona, the game will have had its most concentrated look yet at the players who will define the next decade of major league baseball. 

Sixteen games. Four days. Thirty organizations. More than 500 prospects spread across the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues. Fifty-four members of MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list. And at the center of it all, a quiet but unmistakable thread of Big Orange running through the entire weekend.

Twelve former University of Tennessee Volunteers are rostered across nine different organizations in the 2026 Spring Breakout. It is a staggering figure that speaks directly to what head coach Tony Vitello has built in Knoxville since taking over the program in 2018. Under Vitello, the Volunteers have produced an NCAA-leading 45 players drafted since 2020. 

The 2025 class was the crown jewel: a program-record four players drafted in the first round on a single night, the first time any program had accomplished that feat since LSU in 2023. Eight Vols were taken in the first three rounds total, another program record.

This weekend, those players suit up for their organizations in what has become the most significant prospect showcase in minor league baseball. And for Tennessee fans scattered across a country that barely sleeps when Rocky Top is involved, there is no bad place to look.

Before the names, the context.

Spring Breakout launched in 2024 as a simple but brilliant concept: carve out a four-day window during Spring Training, assemble each organization’s top prospects into competitive rosters, and let the baseball world watch. The inaugural edition gave fans their first look at Paul Skenes toeing a rubber against Jackson Holliday. It was must-watch television before most casual fans had any idea it was happening.

It caught on fast. In 2024, fans saw Skenes strike out Holliday. In 2025, all three of Boston’s big three hit one out of the park. First it was Kristian Campbell, then Marcelo Mayer, and finally Roman Anthony. Two days later, they watched Trey Yesavage throw the first pitch of his professional career.

The alumni list reads like an all-star ballot. The first two years of Spring Breakout showcased several players who quickly became big league stars, including reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes, 2025 Rookies of the Year Drake Baldwin and Nick Kurtz, and postseason sensation Trey Yesavage. Among last year’s Spring Breakout participants, 92 appeared in the big leagues during the regular season, including rookie standouts such as Roman Anthony, Cade Horton, Nick Kurtz and Jacob Misiorowski. 

One hundred and three Breakout players appeared on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 Prospects list during the year, and 46 alumni claimed spots in the Futures Game in July.

The 2026 version is the biggest yet. All 30 Major League clubs will field teams of their best prospects at the showcase event. These rosters are once again packed with top prospects, with 54 members of the current Top 100 Prospects list, and more than 500 of the 900 players who make up teams’ Top 30 Prospects lists. Fourteen No. 1 prospects are scheduled to participate, as are another 16 ranked No. 2 in their respective organizations. The Brewers and Phillies each play twice to account for the uneven numbers across the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues. The Brewers boast the top farm system in the game according to MLB Pipeline.

Watch: 

• GUARDIANS vs. ANGELS

Thursday, March 19 | 2:00 p.m. ET (1:00 p.m. CT)

Tempe Diablo Stadium | Tempe, Arizona

Watch: MLB App

1. INF Dean Curley / Cleveland Guardians

Drafted No. 64 overall, 2025 MLB Draft

• REDS vs. GIANTS

Thursday, March 19 | 9:05 p.m. ET

Scottsdale Stadium | Scottsdale, Arizona

Watch: MLB Network, NBC Sports Bay Area & Amazon

1. 2B/INF Gavin Kilen /San Francisco Giants

Drafted No. 13 overall, 2025 MLB Draft  Giants’ No. 3 Prospect

2. OF/SS Steele Hall :Cincinnati Reds

Drafted No. 9 overall, 2025 MLB Draft

Steele Hall was committed to Tennessee. The Reds had other plans.

• RED SOX vs. ORIOLES

Friday, March 20 | 6:05 p.m. ET

Ed Smith Stadium | Sarasota, Florida

Watch: MASN

1. RHP Marcus Phillips / Boston Red Sox

Drafted No. 33 overall (Competitive Balance Round A), 2025 MLB Draft | Red Sox’s No. 9 Prospect

• PHILLIES vs. TWINS

Thursday, March 19 | 1:05 p.m. ET

Lee Health Sports Complex | Fort Myers, Florida

Watch: MLB Network, MNNT & Amazon

1. 3B Billy Amick / Minnesota Twins

Drafted No. 60 overall, 2024 MLB Draft

• NATIONALS vs. CARDINALS

Thursday, March 19 | 4:30 p.m. ET

Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium | Jupiter, Florida

Watch: MLB App (part of traditional doubleheader with an MLB Spring Training game)

1. LHP Liam Doyle /St. Louis Cardinals

Drafted No. 5 overall, 2025 MLB Draft | Cardinals’ No. 2 Prospect

2. RHP Tanner Franklin /St. Louis Cardinals

Drafted No. 72 overall, 2025 MLB Draft | Cardinals’ No. 7 Prospect

• GUARDIANS vs. ANGELS

Thursday, March 19 | 2:00 p.m. ET (1:00 p.m. CT)

Tempe Diablo Stadium | Tempe, Arizona

Watch: MLB App

1. INF Dean Curley / Cleveland Guardians

Drafted No. 64 overall, 2025 MLB Draft

2. RHP Nate Snead / Los Angeles Angels

Drafted No. 105 overall (Round 3), MLB 2025 Draft.

• ROYALS vs. RANGERS

Friday, March 20 | 4:00 p.m. ET (3:00 p.m. CT) Surprise Stadium | Surprise, Arizona

Watch: Rangers Sports Network & Amazon

1. RHP A.J. Russell /Texas Rangers

Drafted No. 52 overall, 2025 MLB Draft

2. OF Dylan Dreiling / Texas Rangers

Drafted No. 65 overall, 2024 MLB Draft

• MARINERS vs. BREWERS (Game 1)

Friday, March 20 | 5:10 p.m. ET (4:10 p.m. CT) American Family Fields of Phoenix | Phoenix, Arizona. Watch: MLB Network (part of traditional doubleheader with an MLB Spring Training game)

1. 3B/1B Andrew Fischer / Milwaukee Brewers

Drafted No. 20 overall, 2025 MLB Draft | Baseball America’s No. 1 Third-Base Prospect in Baseball

The numbers alone are staggering, but the context makes them more so. Vitello arrived at Tennessee in 2018 inheriting a program that had produced exactly two first-round picks in the previous eight years. 

No other college program has more in this year’s MLB Spring Breakout series:

Tennessee 12

LSU 10

ASU 7

Arkansas 7

Ms State 7 

Oklahoma 6

A&M 6

FSU 6

Vandy 6

This weekend, for four days, the MLB Spring Breakout becomes the biggest showcase in minor league baseball. And for four days, it also becomes the most extended Vol highlight reel the country has ever seen. Tune in accordingly. 

• All Spring Breakout games will be broadcast live and fully available on MLB’s digital platforms. MLB.com, MLB.TV, and the MLB app — free and without blackouts. MLB Network will air eight of the 16 games live.  Fans can also stream the MLB Network games live on Fubo, which offers a free trial