Tennessee Baseball Will Likely Be Without Utility Player For Season Opener Next Month

Tennessee baseball will likely be without a player due to an injury he has suffered to start the season.

Tennessee's Garrett Wright at bat during the Orange & White scrimmage at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on November 9, 2025, in Knoxville, Tenn. | Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Tennessee Volunteers will have the chance to do very well, even though they will be under new leadership. This is the first baseball season without former Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello, who is now an MLB manager for the San Francisco Giants. He was the first college coach to make a direct move up to become a manager without any prior MLB coaching experience.

The Vols' new head coach is Josh Elander, who may be new to the position, but the program is familiar. He was on Vitello's staff for many years serving as the hitting coach and the third base coach. He will now begin his head coaching career with the hopes of being successful, which many predict he will.

Elander recently caught up with VolQuest and GoVols247. When he was catching up with these outlets, he informed them that the Vols may be without a utility player. That player is Garrett Wright, who was very successful last season for the Bowling Green program, where he had a batting average of .406. This is ridiculous when you think about the amount of at-bats he had, as he finished with 202 on the season.

Here is what the newest Vols head coach had to say about the injury.

Elander Comments on Garrett Wright's Injury

Josh Elander is formally introduced as Tennessee’s baseball coach by Tennessee athletics director Danny White on October 27, 2025, in Knoxville, Tenn. | Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“We’ll get him back and ready to go,” Elander said. “He’s battling through that. We’ve had some guys go through that in the past. It’s just a baseball injury. It’s going to happen, especially when guys, they hold their bat a certain way. So long-term, no real concerns there. We’ll get him back. Obviously he’ll be able to do his throwing and running in the mean time to keep him ready to go.”

The expected time has been reported to be around 3-6 weeks. He would possibly be able to return before the first game, but that seems less likely, as he will likely miss some time to kickstart the season. This means the Vols will begin the season limited, as Wright will be a key contributor for the Vols. The Vols will likely now turn to Stone Lawless or Levi Clark as the starter at the catcher spot. This will be a position to monitor carefully towards the beginning of the season, as it seemed that Wright could find his way to be the primary starter at the position prior to his injury.

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