Tegan Kuhns has been projected as a first-round pick in the 2026 MLB Draft, putting the Tennessee starting pitcher in the middle of one of the biggest weekends on the college baseball calendar. The draft is set for July 11-12, and his name is now part of the early conversation around the class.
That timing matters because the first round opens July 11 at 1 p.m. ET, with the first 10 picks covered on NBC and Peacock before the rest of the opening day shifts to MLB Network and MLB.com. The second day covers rounds 5-20 beginning at 11:30 a.m., and drafted players will have until July 27 at 5 p.m. to sign contracts.
Kuhns is part of a Tennessee group that keeps showing up in draft projections. Since 2018, at least three Tennessee players have been selected every year, and this class has already drawn attention beyond Kuhns alone. Jared Grindlinger and Trevor Condon were both taken in Round 1, with Grindlinger going to the Los Angeles Angels at No. 12 overall and Condon going to the St. Louis Cardinals at No. 13 overall.
That track record gives Tennessee a clear place in the 2026 MLB Draft, but it does not settle where Kuhns will land. He is projected as a first-rounder, not a locked-in pick, and draft-eligible players who go unselected can still sign as free agents until the start of the fall semester. In other words, the draft window is wide open, and so is the path after it for anyone left without a name called.
For Tennessee, Kuhns is another test of how far the program’s pipeline reaches. For Kuhns, the next date that matters is July 11, when the first round begins and the projection has to meet the real thing.
