Star Tennessee baseball lefty enters the portal in setback for Tony Vitello

There's been a case of good news/bad news for the Tennessee baseball team in recent days. The good news came on Sunday night with standout transfer catcher Garrett Wright committing to play for the Vols next season.

However, the portal gives and it takes. On Monday morning, reporter Ben McKee broke the news that stud left-handed reliever Dylan Loy has decided to pack his bags and leave Knoxville. That's right, the hard-throwing lefty will transfer and it's safe to assume that plenty of teams are now going to be in contact with him to try to land his services:

Tennessee LHP Dylan Loy has entered the transfer portal

As McKee noted in the tweet above, Loy led the way for the Vols this past season with his 33 appearances. Throughout the 2025 campaign, he impressed with the ball in his hands - the sophomore posted a 4-0 record, with a 3.97 ERA.

According to McKee's sources, Loy is looking for a starting role at his next stop. He was a bullpen arm for Tony Vitello and Tennessee, but he clearly wasn't happy with that role and he's going to be looking to start with whichever team he decides to sign with.

Vitello will now look to replace Loy via the transfer portal, as this no question is a sizable loss for Tennessee looking ahead to the 2026 season. However, the good news here is that Vitello has already been working the portal pretty darn hard and he has an impressive group of incoming freshmen on the way to campus.

In 2024, Tennessee won the College World Series for the first time and the program followed things up with a trip to the Super Regionals this spring. The future is bright for this team and a deep run is expected next campaign. What wasn't expected, however, was that Loy won't be part of the roster in '26. This news stings in more ways than one for the Vols.