Thomas Eshelman

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Thomas Darwin Eshelman

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Biographical Information[edit]

Pitcher Thomas Eshelman was a second-round selection by the Houston Astros in the 2015 amateur draft (the scout was Brad Budzinski); less than a season later, he was involved in a major trade.

The Astros picked Thomas out of Cal State-Fullerton and assigned him to the GCL Astros, where he started a couple of games but pitched only 2 innings. He was then moved up to the Quad Cities River Bandits of the Midwest League, where he made two more short starts. The Astros obviously considered he had already pitched a lot at the college level that year and did not want to overtax him. In all, he pitched 10 1/3 innings, giving up 5 runs on 12 hits and 5 walks, and striking out 8. In college, he set a record by walking nobody in his first 63 1/3 innings as a freshman and continued to show outstanding control until being drafted. In 2013, he was the Louisville Slugger Freshman Pitcher of the Year and in 2015, he won All-American honors and was West Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year.

In spite of his lack of pro experience, he was one of five pitchers traded by Houston to the Philadelphia Phillies on December 12, 2015. The others included Brett Oberholtzer and Vince Velasquez, both with major league experience; former top prospect Mark Appel, attempting to get his career back on track, and a very long shot in Harold Arauz, who had yet to make it out of short-season ball. In return, the Astros picked up an experienced major league reliever in Ken Giles and a teenage infield prospect with plenty of upside in Jonathan Arauz. It was a very interesting deal because of the amount of talent involved and because both teams were placing bets that could take a number of years to bear fruit.

The Phillies clearly considered Eshelman to have outstanding potential, as they sent him straight the High-A ball to begin 2016, with the Clearwater Threshers of the Florida State League, whereas a more conservative approach would have seen him get his feet wet in the South Atlantic League first. In 11 starts, he went 4-2, 3.34, then moved up to the Reading Fightin Phils of the AA Eastern League, where he was 5-5, 5.14 in 14 games. That gave him an overall record of 9-7, 4.25 in 120 2/3 innings, with 119 strikeouts against 28 walks.

After he had seemingly stalled in the high minors for a few years, he was acquired by the pitching-starved Baltimore Orioles on June 9, 2019. It did not take him long to get the call to the Show after that, as less than a month later, on July 1st, he made his major league debut as the starting pitcher against the Tampa Bay Rays. He did well, allowing just 2 runs in 5 innings and was not involved in the decision as the Orioles eventually lost the game, 6-3. Eshelman finished his career in the San Diego Padres minor league system in 2022.

Eshelman became a pitching coach with the Lake Elsinore Storm in 2023 and Fort Wayne TinCaps in 2024.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Lee Jenkins: "Control Freak: The college pitcher who walks alone in baseball history", Sports Illustrated, May 7, 2015. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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