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Tennessee Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello made plenty of opposing fans mad during the 2025 MLB Draft and it wasn't even his fault

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Zach Ragan | Last updated Jul 14, 2025 11:50 AM ET

Tennessee Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello managed to anger some opposing fan bases on Sunday night during the 2025 MLB Draft, but it wasn't really his fault.

Vitello was part of MLB Network's draft coverage for the third time in the last four years.

With eight former Vols getting selected on night one of the draft, the production felt like an hours long recruiting pitch for Tennessee baseball.

And that didn't sit well with some fan bases.

Tony Vitello on MLB Draft coverage is outrageous. This is national television, not a free recruiting commercial for Tennessee baseball. He’s not an analyst — he’s a self-promoter pushing his own players. Shame on MLB for allowing it #MLBDraft

Dan O’Dowd was great as always
— CLO Mezz (@IntWaterfall) July 14, 2025

MLB letting a college coach like Tony Vitello on their live draft coverage is a joke. Conflict of interest, biased takes, and zero objectivity.

Save the recruiting pitches for Knoxville—not primetime TV #MLBDraft #MLBDraft25
— CLO Mezz (@IntWaterfall) July 14, 2025

I would love to read an anonymous survey of SEC baseball coaches and their thoughts on Tony Vitello being the centerpiece of MLB Network's draft coverage.

Don't get much better free recruiting material than this.
— David Eckert (@davideckert98) July 14, 2025

Active NCAA D1 coaches like Vitello, Johnson, etc. shouldn’t be part of MLB Draft coverage.

They just say nice things about their players (others they faced), don’t offer anything of critical value. And those types don’t exactly need MLB boosting their exposure to recruits.
— Matt Collier (@reillocity) July 13, 2025

Vitello is already one of the best recruiters in the sport, so it's not like he needs the free publicity.

But it certainly doesn't hurt.

Night one of the 2025 MLB Draft essentially served as an infomercial for Tennessee baseball. And it didn't even require Vitello, who is fantastic on TV (he knows when to stay in the background and when to speak up), to sell his program -- the results of the draft did that for him.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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