Tennessee baseball parts ways with pitching coach Josh Reynolds

Tennessee baseball has parted ways with pitching coach Josh Reynolds, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told Volquest on Thursday.

Reynolds joined Tennessee’s staff as the director of pitching performance prior to the 2025 season. Vols coach Josh Elander tabbed Reynolds as the pitching coach on his first staff after Frank Anderson joined Tony Vitello‘s staff with the San Francisco Giants. He spent one season in the role and now Elander is seeking a new pitching coach for his second season.

Reynolds inherited the staff assembled by Vitello and Anderson, taking over as pitching coach in November. The staff had mixed results and finished the season without many options, especially in the bullpen.

The Vols allowed 87 home runs and had a 4.72 team ERA in 2026, the highest mark since 2013. They hit 62 batters, its most since 2012. Tennessee also ranked highly in categories that it historically has leaned on. It ranked among the top 10 teams in the nation in walks per nine innings and strikeout-to-walk ratio. They were in the top 20 in strikeouts per nine innings.

Tegan Kuhns took a major jump as a sophomore and is a likely first-round pick, while Bo Rhudy and Nic Abraham also were successes on the staff. Rhudy is a likely top-5 round pick. Evan Blanco and Landon Mack were steady and reliable throughout most of the season as starters. Others struggled, especially Brayden Krenzel and portal additions Brady Frederick and Mark Hindy. Brandon Arvidson was never 100% during his junior season.

Reynolds, who has been a pitching coach at Kansas State and Northwestern, spent one season at Cincinnati before he was hired by Tennessee in July 2024. He was a third-round pick by the New York Metsin the 2000 MLB Draft and spent time in the minor leagues before shifting to coaching in 2004.