Trent Thornton

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Trent Edward Thornton

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Biographical Information[edit]

Trent Thornton made his major league debut with the Toronto Blue Jays as the starting pitcher against the Detroit Tigers on March 31, 2019. The three other members of the starting rotation who had preceded him on the mound in the first three games of the season had all pitched shutout ball, for a total of 19 innings. Things started off poorly for Trent, as he gave up a broken bat single to the first batter he faced, Jeimer Candelario, but he then proceeded to strike out the side. He pitched five innings and extend the scoreless streak to 24 innings as he only gave up one other hit, did not walk and struck out 8 in what was a very impressive performance, even if the Jays went on to lose the game in extra innings. The 8 strikeouts were a team record for a pitcher making his debut.

He was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 5th round of the 2015 amateur draft after a solid career at the University of North Carolina for whom he appeared in the 2013 College World Series. He got off to a good start as a pro, going 4-0, 3.27 for the Tri-City ValleyCats of the New York-Penn League in 2015, and then 10-5, 3.52 between two teams in 2016, reaching AA with the Corpus Christi Hooks. He got hit a bit harder in AAA over the next two season, with ERAs of 5.09 and 4.42 for the Fresno Grizzlies of the Pacific Coast League in 2017 and 2018, but still went 8-4 and 9-8 those two seasons. He also got a bit lost in the shuffle in an Astros system loaded with good young pitchers. Following the 2018 season, he was traded to the Blue Jays in return for IF Aledmys Diaz. That gave him an opportunity to stand out and he impressed in spring training in 2019, with 16 Ks in 15 innings to earn a spot in the team's starting rotation after Ryan Borucki, who had been penciled in for the spot, went down with an injury. He was winless in his first 8 starts, a victim of both inconsistency and some poor run support (these starts included outings when he gave up no runs twice, and 1 run and 2 runs once each, but all resulted in no-decisions). On May 14th, he recorded his first major league win when he defeated the San Francisco Giants, 7-2; he was the beneficiary of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s first two career homers that day. Overall, he went 6-9, 4.84 that season, making 32 appearances (29 starts) and pitching a team-high 154 1/3 innings. He struck out 149 batters.

After a pretty solid rookie season, Trent was unable to build upon it in 2020, as arm problems limited him to just 3 starts, lasting 5 2/3 innings. He gave up 7 runs on 15 hits for an ERA of 11.12, but had no decisions. In 2021, he was assigned to the bullpen to start the season, as he needed to build up his arm strength before being in contention for a starting job again.

Thornton has a very high leg kick that reminds observers of Bronson Arroyo. While this was common at one point, it is extremely rare these days and makes it difficult for batters to pick up the ball as its leaves his hand.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Gregor Chisholm: "Thornton's club mark comes in bittersweet loss", mlb.com, March 31, 2019. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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