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.