Connor Thomas Bio
Sidney Connor Thomas (born May 29, 1998) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Atlanta Braves organization. A former fifth-round draft pick, he previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Milwaukee Brewers, making his MLB debut in 2025. Thomas is recognized for a workmanlike approach on the mound and a steady climb through the minor leagues.
Drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2019, Thomas built his career as a starting pitcher before transitioning to a multi-inning relief role. He has spent time at every level of the Cardinals’ system, reached the Triple-A ranks, and earned the Arizona Fall League Pitcher of the Year award in 2022. After a brief MLB stint with Milwaukee, he returned to the upper minors with Atlanta.
Early Life and Background
Thomas grew up in the Tifton, Georgia area and attended Tift County High School, the same program that produced several other professional athletes. As a high school junior in 2015, he put together an 8–1 record with a 0.67 earned run average (ERA), drawing attention from college recruiters around the Southeast. Although he went unselected in the 2016 Major League Baseball draft, the experience reinforced his decision to continue his baseball development at the collegiate level.
Coming out of a strong high school program, Thomas entered Georgia Tech as a left-handed pitcher with a starter’s build and a projectable curveball. He spent three seasons working with the Yellow Jackets coaching staff, refining his mechanics and adding velocity. His time in Atlanta helped him adjust to a more demanding schedule and prepared him for a professional career in the Cardinals system.
Path to Professional Baseball
Thomas began his college career at Georgia Tech, where he split his freshman year between relief outings and spot starts. In 10 and one-third innings as a freshman, he struggled with command, surrendering 13 earned runs, a stretch that pushed him to rework his delivery. The following sophomore season marked a turning point, as he moved into the starting rotation and went 7–4 with a 3.34 ERA and 106 strikeouts over 97 innings across fifteen games.
As a junior in 2019, Thomas made sixteen starts for the Yellow Jackets, compiling a 9–2 record and a 3.11 ERA over 113 innings. His performance that spring boosted his draft stock, and the St. Louis Cardinals selected him in the fifth round, with the 155th overall pick, of the 2019 Major League Baseball draft. He signed with the organization and reported to his first professional assignment shortly afterward.
Connor Thomas Career
Early Career (2019–2020)
Thomas made his professional debut in 2019 with the State College Spikes of the Low-A New York–Penn League before a midseason promotion to the Peoria Chiefs of the Single-A Midwest League. Over 43 innings between the two clubs, he went 4–1 with a 3.77 ERA, showing the kind of pitch efficiency that had marked his college career. The 2020 season, however, brought an unexpected pause when the minor league season was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping Thomas off the mound for the year.
When organized play resumed, Thomas returned to the Cardinals’ developmental pipeline with a clearer focus on strike-throwing and durability. The layoff cost him valuable innings, but it also allowed him to reset physically and study opposing hitters with a fresh perspective.
St. Louis Cardinals System (2021–2024)
Thomas opened 2021 with the Springfield Cardinals of the Double-A Central, but after compiling a 4.87 ERA over 20 and one-third innings, he earned a promotion to the Memphis Redbirds of the Triple-A East. With Memphis, he logged 22 games, 14 of them starts, and produced a 6–4 record with a 3.10 ERA and 92 strikeouts over 101 and two-thirds innings. The improvement signaled he was ready for a fuller Triple-A workload the following year.
Back at Memphis in 2022, Thomas appeared in 28 games with 25 starts and posted a 6–12 record and a 5.47 ERA, striking out 110 batters over 135 innings. Despite the win-loss line, the Cardinals liked his pitch quality, and they sent him to the Arizona Fall League to pitch for the Salt River Rafters. He responded with a 1.75 ERA and 34 strikeouts across 25 and two-thirds innings and was named AFL Pitcher of the Year. On November 15, 2022, the Cardinals added him to the 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft, and he returned to Memphis to begin 2023, where he logged a 5–4 record and a 5.53 ERA in 21 games. After multiple prospects were added to the 40-man roster that November, Thomas was designated for assignment, cleared waivers, and was sent outright to Triple-A.
In 2024, Thomas reshaped his role as a multi-inning reliever at Memphis, going 7–4 with a 2.89 ERA, 79 strikeouts, and three saves over 90 and one-third innings in 56 appearances. The shift to the bullpen revitalized his career and put him back on big-league radar screens entering the offseason.
Milwaukee Brewers (2025)
On December 11, 2024, the Milwaukee Brewers selected Thomas in the Rule 5 draft, giving him a path to the major leagues. On March 22, 2025, the Brewers announced that he had made the Opening Day roster, and he made two MLB appearances before being placed on the injured list on April 8 with left elbow arthritis. He was transferred to the 60-day injured list on May 18, and on July 1 the team announced that he would need surgery to remove loose bodies from the elbow, with Tommy John surgery still a possibility. On October 24, he was outrighted off the 40-man roster and chose free agency over a minor league assignment.
Atlanta Braves Era (2025–Present)
On November 6, 2025, Thomas signed a minor league contract with the Atlanta Braves, returning to the Triple-A level as he works back from elbow issues. The deal gave him an opportunity to rebuild his innings in a familiar role and re-establish himself within a new organization.
Driving Style and Strengths
Thomas works as a left-handed pitcher who relies on a low-90s fastball, a sweepy breaking ball, and a changeup that he has continued to refine at the upper levels. He has shown particular comfort working multiple innings in relief, where he can attack hitters early in counts and limit pitch-count damage. His grounder-friendly profile has made him a fit for high-leverage bullpen work.
Notable Events and Milestones
His biggest individual honor came in 2022, when he was named the Arizona Fall League Pitcher of the Year after a dominant stint with the Salt River Rafters. He also reached the milestone of being added to a 40-man roster in November 2022 and made his MLB debut in 2025 with the Brewers, fulfilling a path that began with a fifth-round selection in 2019.
Connor Thomas Career Wins
Thomas has accumulated his wins across the Cardinals’ developmental levels, with a particularly strong 2024 season that saw him go 7–4 out of the Memphis Redbirds bullpen. He has notched victories at Low-A, High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A, and his AFL Pitcher of the Year award highlighted his late-2022 surge.
Minor League Highlights
Thomas’s first professional wins came in 2019 with State College and Peoria, where he combined to go 4–1 across Low-A and Single-A. He added six wins in Triple-A in 2021 and six more at Memphis in 2022, before posting seven regular-season wins in 2024 in a relief role. His most recent regular-season victory came during the 2024 campaign, when his 2.89 ERA helped anchor a Memphis pitching staff that returned to the postseason.
Other Wins and Performances
Thomas added a win total during his Arizona Fall League stint in 2022, a stretch that produced his 1.75 ERA and Pitcher of the Year honors. He also reached the major leagues in 2025, although his limited regular-season MLB action produced no recorded MLB decisions before he went on the injured list.
Connor Thomas Family
Family Background and Personal Life
Thomas was raised in the Tifton, Georgia area and is connected to a Tift County High School community that has produced several professional athletes. He has not publicly discussed his parents or siblings in detail, and there are no widely reported details about his immediate family beyond his connection to the Tift County baseball program.
Personal Life
Thomas keeps his personal life largely private, and no public information about a spouse or children has been disclosed in verified sources. He is known to be active on social media, where he connects with fans under his handle @sct_thomas.
2025 Season Performance
Thomas’s 2025 season was disrupted almost from the start. After earning an Opening Day roster spot with the Milwaukee Brewers, he made two MLB appearances before being placed on the injured list on April 8 with left elbow arthritis. The team transferred him to the 60-day injured list on May 18, and by July 1 the Brewers announced that he would require surgery to remove loose bodies from the elbow, with Tommy John surgery remaining a possibility. He finished the year without a recorded MLB decision.
On October 24, Thomas was outrighted off Milwaukee’s 40-man roster and elected free agency rather than accept a minor league assignment. Six days later, on November 6, he signed a minor league contract with the Atlanta Braves, providing a path back to a healthy 2026. The deal gave him a chance to rebuild his workload in Triple-A as he returned from elbow surgery.
Looking ahead, the 2026 outlook for Thomas depends heavily on how his elbow responds through the winter. A healthy spring would put him in position to contribute as a multi-inning reliever in Atlanta’s system, while any setbacks could push his timeline back. Either way, the Braves minor league deal represents a fresh start for a pitcher who once looked like a future rotation piece in the Cardinals organization.