College Baseball
The transfer portal is officially open for baseball, but it doesn’t look as if Brogan Jones will be entering. The rising senior made an Instagram post with the simple caption: “Run it back.” Jones was named to the 2026 Academic All-District NCAA Division I Team on Tuesday.
Jones, a business administration major, started at second base for Longwood this past season, hitting .270 with six home runs and 16 total extra base hits. He scored 51 runs — second-most on the team — and had 37 RBIs with 19 stolen bases.
Academic all-district selections must be at least a sophomore, have a cumulative GPA of 3.50 or higher on a 4.0 scale, appear in 90 percent of the institution’s games played or must start in at least 66 percent of their games.
Landon Smelser has entered the transfer portal after two years at Tennessee Tech. He announced his decision on X May 29. Smelser hit .291 as a sophomore with an .832 OPS, nine home runs, 16 total extra base hits, and 32 RBIs.
Pro Baseball
Evan Carter is the only Northeast Tennessee native currently active in Major League Baseball. It’s been a struggle at the plate for Carter, who is with the Texas Rangers, in 2026; through June 2, the Elizabethton native was hitting .173 with a .629 OPS, six home runs, 18 RBIs, and nine steals. Carter has yet to recapture the form he displayed as a rookie in 2023, when he posted a 1.058 OPS after his call-up for a Rangers team that won the World Series that year.
Gavin Cross, a Bristol native and product of Tennessee High, is struggling in his first season at the Triple-A level. The ninth overall pick in the 2002 draft coming out of Virginia Tech, Cross entered June 2 hitting .186 with a .544 OPS, two homers, 14 RBIs, and 11 stolen bases. He’s playing for the Royals’ Triple-A team in Omaha.
Josh Owens, a Johnson City native and Providence Academy product, is in the midst of his second season as a pro after getting drafted in the third round last year by the Texas Rangers. Playing for the Rangers’ rookie ball team in Arizona, Owens is hitting .213 with a .664 OPS. Through June 2, he had appeared in 17 games. A two-way player, Owens has fared better, with a 1.35 ERA in four starts encompassing 6 2-3 innings.
Hunter Stratton has spent nearly this entire season playing for the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate in Gwinnett. He entered the month of June with a 2-3 record and 4.87 ERA in 18 appearances. May was not the kindest to Stratton, a Sullivan East alum; he allowed nine hits and seven runs (five earned) in eight appearances that spanned 9 1/3 innings.
Landon Knack has been part of the World Series champion run by the Dodgers in each of the past two years but 2026 has presented a roadblock to date. The Johnson City native and product of Science Hill and ETSU, Knack has yet to pitch this season due to an intercostal strain.
Pro Basketball
Ja’Kobi Gillespie seems like a strong candidate to be taken in the NBA Draft, which takes place June 23-24 in Brooklyn. Gillespie had a strong showing at the NBA Combine. The Greeneville native made history this past seasons, his lone campaign at Tennessee. Feats included, among many others, setting the Vols’ single-game steals record (twice), setting the program single-seasons steals record, and becoming the first Southeastern Conference player ever to amass 200 assists and 100 made 3-pointers in a single season.
Jack Browder signed with , playing in the NBL1 League in Austalia, and he’s been crushing it. In his first eight games with the Perry Lakes Hawks, Browder averages an eye-popping 31.1 points per game, along with 7.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists. A Dobyns-Bennett graduate who helped the Indians win the state basketball title in 2022, Browder wrapped his college career at Division II Carson-Newman as both an academic and basketball All-American, and the player of the year in the South Atlantic Conference.