Left-hander Connor Thomas has made the Brewers’ Opening Day roster, according to Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Thomas was selected out of the Cardinals’ organization in the Rule 5 Draft back in December, and the 26-year-old is now nearing his big league debut in what will be his sixth season of pro ball.
A fifth-round pick for the Cardinals in the 2019 draft, Thomas has pitched almost exclusively for Triple-A Memphis over the last four seasons, delivering a 4.36 ERA over 421 1/3 innings at the Cards’ top affiliate. Thomas doesn’t miss many bats and his control is good but unspectacular, as the lefty’s calling card is a knack for inducing ground balls. He has topped the 50% threshold with his grounder rates in each of his last three years in Memphis, and an inflated BABIP indicates that Thomas’ bottom-line numbers would’ve been better if he’d had just an average amount of batted-ball luck.
That kind of luck-dependent production could explain why St. Louis never gave Thomas a look on their active roster, but the Brewers were intrigued enough to draft him away from their NL Central rivals. Thomas then did his part to stand out this spring, with an excellent 0.96 ERA over 9 1/3 relief innings.
Thomas worked as both a starter and reliever in the Cardinals’ farm system before transitioning more fully into bullpen work last year, with the result of a 2.89 ERA over 90 1/3 innings. Several of Thomas’ 56 appearances involved more than one inning, so he can bring some innings-eating length to the Milwaukee bullpen. Thomas is one of three left-handers projected to be part of the Brew Crew’s pen, along with Jared Koenig and Bryan Hudson.
As per the stipulations of the Rule 5 Draft, selected players cannot be optioned to the minors. Thomas will have to spend the entire 2025 season on the Brewers’ roster (or, at least 90 days on the active roster and the rest on the big league injured list) for Milwaukee to fully claim his rights. If the Brewers wanted to remove Thomas from their active roster, they would have to place him on outright waivers, then offer him back to the Cards for $50K.
The Brewers probably will find a way to win the division as usual this season–only the Reds present much of a challenge–but the Brewers’ pitching seems very iffy going in.
Alan53….Is this a Reds biased or a Brewer biased comment? The likeliest bet is the Cubs taking the division.
It being a central so 90 wins should win either Central division. Reds need a whole lot of things to break right for them to get above third; Abbott and Steer being out are not helping their prospects.
Brewers bias?
You mean the team that has won the division 3 out of the last 4 years right?
The Brewers are better than last year and saying the pitching is iffy is almost laughable. Like many teams, they have some injuries bit none are for the year or even half the year.
However, just like last year when the Cubs were “clearly” the best team, some people are questioning the Brewers..
The more informed fan realizes that this team is extremely well-run, baseball pundits have now realized that and now are picking the Brewers much more often,
I agree, but the pitching IS iffy.
Why are the Cubs the likeliest team to win the division? Because a bunch of baseball pundits and fans think so. Nah, the Cubs aren’t as impressive as a lot of people are making them out to be. As much as I want to see the Reds win the division, it’s the Brewers division to lose until somebody else steps up and unseats them.
Actually, I’m a realistic Cubs fan. Have a look at the standings 29 games in, and you will be surprised that the Cubs will already be essentially out of the race then. The Cubs will have played the Dodgers and D-backs 14 times by then, and they might lose all 14.
The cubs have done nothing but exchange power bats and pick up scrubs from the scrap heap all summer. It will be the Brewers division again with smoke and mirror pitching and the youngest/best D in baseball.
Agree. The D and the *speed* will be key strengths for the Brewers.
That division is more open than people think. The Cubs could implode and just do Cub things. As you said Milwaukee’s pitching is iffy. Cincy could be there but injuries off the start could prove costly. You can’t count out the Pirates with that staff and St. Louis will probably hang around until the deadline.
The Cubs are an American League team from the 1950s–all white, and pathetically one-dimensional. But it’s not a matter of “doing Cubs things”–that is lazy thinking and writing, no offense. It is a matter of being destroyed by the worst POBO in the game, Jed Hoyer, and his hand puppet Carter Hawkins.
Here we go. Another potential black eye for the vaunted John Mozeliak talent evaluation and development machine.
The Brewers exploited the Rule 5 Draft to outsource player development to the Cardinals for free, then poach the refined product at the perfect moment. Cardinals just became the Brewers AAA team.
There shouldn’t be a comma after “or” in that instance.