Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Connor Thomas. Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

Young Brewers hurler to have season-ending Tommy John surgery

Originally posted on WI Sports Heroics | By Robin M Adams | Last updated Jul 6, 2025 10:38 PM ET

Early in the 2025 MLB season, the Milwaukee Brewers saw their starting rotation suffer a plethora of injuries that landed just about everyone on the injured list. Some of these injuries occurred before the season started, such as Brandon Woodruff’s shoulder, Aaron Ashby’s oblique, DL Hall’s lat and Tobias Meyers’ oblique.

And in the first few weeks of the season, the Brewers saw Nestor Cortes, Aaron Civale and Jose Quintana all spend time on the injured list. This slue of injuries forced Milwaukee to build a starting rotation on the fly, and now it has a solid five-man crew with many of its injured players either back or coming back soon.

But one of them will have to wait until 2026 to see the field again.

During the offseason, the Brewers selected left-handed pitcher Connor Thomas from the St. Louis Cardinals in the Rule 5 Draft. As per the rules of the draft, Thomas broke spring training on Milwaukee’s Opening Day roster, and appeared in two games.

His first game was during the opening series against the New York Yankees, which was a forgettable set of games by multiple players. Thomas gave up eight earned runs in two innings of relief on March 29, a game the Brewers lost, 20-9.

Thomas’ next appearance came on April 3, though he did not have much better results. He pitched 3.1 innings and gave up four runs in Milwaukee’s 11-7 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.

And shortly after, he went on the injured list with an elbow injury.

Unfortunately, rehab has not worked on the elbow, and he is set to have Tommy John surgery, which will end his 2025 season and likely keep him out until mid-season in 2026.