Dylan Volantis

Dylan Volantis was the most dominant reliever in college baseball last spring. A 1.94 ERA with 74 strikeouts and 12 saves in 51 innings — as a freshman. His 11 SEC saves broke a conference freshman record that had stood for 22 years. He entered 2026 as the reigning SEC Freshman of the Year with a simple question hanging over his season: can the closer become a starter?

Two Sundays into the answer, the conversion isn’t just working. It’s rewriting expectations. Volantis has thrown 14 innings across two starts without allowing an earned run. Against UC Davis in Week 1, he carried a no-hitter into the sixth, retired 14 of his first 16 batters, and needed only 78 pitches across 7 innings of one-hit ball. Against Michigan State in Week 2, he allowed five hits but zero runs, posting a career-high 9 strikeouts in a complete shutout that sent the Spartans home scoreless.

The distinction matters for the draft evaluation. Relievers are discounted — the historical probability of a college closer becoming a top-of-the-rotation MLB arm is low enough that teams won’t invest first-round capital on it. A starter with Volantis’s stuff and command profile is a different asset entirely. If he can maintain this workload through SEC conference play — the spring’s real crucible — his draft stock jumps from Day 2 relief arm to first-round starter. That’s a $2M+ swing in bonus money for the same pitcher.

Volantis throws from the left side with a fastball that parks in the low-90s and a slider that acts as the putaway pitch. In the bullpen last year, the slider was a weapon because hitters saw it once, maybe twice, and couldn’t adjust. The starter test is whether the slider holds up the third time through a lineup — whether right-handed hitters who’ve tracked it once can time it when they see it again in the sixth inning.

Through two starts, the answer has been emphatically yes. Michigan State saw plenty of Volantis in the middle innings and still couldn’t score. He worked around five hits by generating strikeouts in high-leverage counts — the kind of pitching that doesn’t show up in the highlight reel but separates starters who survive from starters who dominate. The 17 strikeouts against 2 walks (an 8.5:1 K/BB ratio) suggests this isn’t smoke-and-mirrors efficiency. It’s command.

The development question for Volantis isn’t stuff — the stuff is plus. It’s stamina. His pitch count against UC Davis was an efficient 78, but the Michigan State start likely pushed him deeper into counts with five hits allowed. Whether Schlossnagle extends him past 90 pitches in SEC play — and what the stuff looks like at pitch 95 vs. pitch 50 — is the data point that draft scouts are waiting for. The first 14 innings have been flawless. The next 60 will be definitive.

Volantis doesn’t pitch in isolation. Texas’s staff has a 1.53 ERA through seven games. The Riojas–Harrison–Volantis rotation has posted a 0.75 WHIP across three-game weekends. The Sunday pitching formula — Volantis into the bullpen (Crossland and Burns combining for scoreless relief innings) — hasn’t allowed an earned run through two weekends.

For draft purposes, that context cuts two ways. On one hand, Volantis is pitching with the lead every time he takes the mound — Texas’s lineup is hitting .321 with a .986 team OPS, led by Mendoza (.462, 3 HR). Pitching with a cushion reduces stress and lets him attack the zone. On the other hand, the pitching depth around him (Grubbs, Leffew, Burns — all portal additions from national programs) suggests this isn’t a one-man staff propped up by a weak conference schedule. This is a complete pitching operation, and Volantis is thriving as its anchor.

The first real road test comes soon. When Texas faces SEC opponents with matching lineup depth and pitching pedigree, Volantis’s numbers will face the scrutiny they haven’t yet received. UC Davis and Michigan State were quality data points — the Spartans came in with a Louisville series win — but neither is an SEC weekend opponent. The draft stock escalation requires SEC-caliber results.