Thomas Parsons is a 25 year old right handed pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. He has had a long journey to get this opportunity as a non roster invitee to spring training. From being a Division 3 college player, going undrafted, to playing indy ball. Parsons road has been the one of a player that does not make the MLB normally.
Derrick Goold of STL Today , "Tommy Parsons, RHP (non-roster): Undrafted, a Cardinal by way of indy ball, Parsons pitched at four levels in 2019 with intriguing precision – 27 walks, 158 strikeouts in 165 2/3 innings." Goold listed Parsons when answering the question "Are there openings for a spring surprise?"
It was February 15 when Goold wrote this. Parsons has been a pleasant surprise this spring training. He's pitched in four games tallying 6.1 innings, seven strikeouts, zero walks, two hits, and one run.
Adrian College
Adrian College is a small Division 3 school in Michigan with a rich baseball history. Parsons attended Adrian from 2014-2018 achieving plenty of accomplishments while enrolled. He spent the summers of 2016 and 2017 playing in the Northwoods collegiate summer league.
Parsons led D3 baseball in Strikeout to walk ratio and wins in 2017, then led in Complete games in 2018.
Won the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championship seven times (4 regular season, 3 tournament).
Appeared in Division 3 Championship three times.
Sophomore season threw a no-hitter.
Parsons is listed under almost every single award for the Adrian College baseball team, click here for that list.
The biggest improvement came was from his sophomore season to his junior season. The strikeouts doubled and he lowered his walks to single digits. Allowing only one home run through 93 innings pitched is extremely difficult at any level of baseball. Even before this improvement it's easy to see Parsons was a solid pitcher his sophomore and freshmen seasons.
Battle Creek Bombers
The Battle Creek Bombers are in the Northwoods League (NWDS). The NWDS is a summer independent league for college athletes. There are 22 teams in this league with another likely joining in 2021. The NWDS gets plenty of respect due to its alumni most notably Juan Pierre, Curtis Granderson, Max Scherzer, Pete Alonso, Mark Melancon, Chris Sale, Brandon Crawford, Ben Zobrist, Marcus Semien, and Hunter Dozier.
There are plenty more alumni from the NWDS to make the MLB but lets highlight some that have made contributions for the St. Louis Cardinals. Harrison Bader, John Brebbia, Paul deJong, Jeff Weaver, Pat Neshek, Matt Pagnozzi, Allen Craig, Daniel Descalso, and Greg Garcia.
Justin Toerner, Evan Kruczynski and Lars Nootbar are other prospects in the organization who played in the NWDS.
This sets the precedent and tone for the NWDS and how the Cardinals could have came across Parsons, a fairly unknown prospect for his statistics and accolades.
He was never able to log a bunch of innings for the Bombers but proved effective when he did take the mound. One thing to note is his improvement from Adrian College in 16-17 also shows here. You can see the drop in ERA, didn't allow a single home run, and Parsons registered a complete game shutout for the Bombers in 2017 as well.
Cardinals Minor League Affiliations
2018
Parsons was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2018 by the St. Louis Cardinals and added to their rookie ball team in Johnson City Tennessee. From his numbers below we can see once again he excelled with his K-BB% and limited home runs to under 10 in 57 innings. These solid stats led to him being named an all-star in the Appalachian League.
After the 2018 season The Cardinal Nation named Parsons their Johnson City starting pitcher of the year.
2019
This was a much different year for Parsons, mostly because he played in four different levels in the Cardinals Organization. He began the season in Single-A and started off on a hot streak by allowing only ONE run in his first five games. He also pitched another complete game shutout earning Midwest League Player of the Month. These five games would be enough for the Cardinals to move him up to Single-A +.
His first game up here he allowed five earned runs off 12 hits in only four innings. He rebounded by allowing only two earned runs in his next five games. Then the Cardinals moved him up to Double-A for 14 games.
He played more games in Double-A than anywhere else in 2019 and we see the first time Parsons has really showed signs of a struggle in his baseball career. We can see his stats from Double-A below. His ERA ballooned and he allowed more home runs than usual. However his BB% was still very low and was seen as a huge positive.
He was called up to Triple-A at the end of the season to make one start. He allowed five earned runs off two home runs in five innings.
2020
I was unable to find much on what type of work Thomas Parsons did in 2020 to improve his game. I am sure he worked hard but an unproven and underrated prospect doesn't get very much attention in a down season with no minor league games being played.
2021 And Beyond
This question was sent to Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs.com on January 24, 2021.
"Hi Eric, bit of a random prospect question. Do you know anything about Tommy Parsons? I can’t find much info on him other than basic pitching data like IP, K%, and BB%. He seems to have pretty good control based on his bb%. I was wondering if you had any additional information on him"
Eric A Longenhagen: "88-91, touch 93, more spin than usual at that velo, front side opens up creating something like Michael Wacha‘s arm slot (though not that extreme) has 40/45 curveball that he locates glove side"
Parsons has been one of the best Cardinal pitchers in spring training this far. His best highlight is when he struck out one of the best players in MLB Trea Turner. Click here to watch. His ability to limit walks and home runs again showed as he has zero through 6.1 innings. Below you can see the rest of his spring training stats.
The biggest item in this chart that should pop out to everybody is the last column labeled "OppQual" this stands for Opponent Quality. Parsons is rated as a 7.2 which is equal to Double-A. Meaning the average batter he has faced this spring training has been Double-A quality. This is very important because Parsons was in Double-A in 2019 when we saw his first struggles. Now he is showing IMPROVEMENT and I believe he will be ready to dominate Double-A like he has with his competition in the past.
Unfortunately the minor league season is currently set to be delayed but hopefully will be back up by May. While Parsons isn't the only player that needs playing time and game reps to improve, coming from Division 3 he almost needs those reps to prove himself more than others.
I have seen some saying they could see Parsons being called up to MLB in 2021 even though he is not on the 40-man roster yet. I believe it is more likely he'll see the callup to the majors in 2022 after he gets more time adjusting to better hitting. If and when he gets the promotion to MLB it probably will not be a starting rotation spot at first. The Cardinals are pretty deep in the rotation currently and have a track record of letting minor league starters get time to develop in the MLB bullpen before starting them. However, I think an interesting idea that could work well with him is using an opener to start a game then call Parsons in after an inning or two. I believe he will be above average in MLB if he continues to stick to his game of limiting walks and home runs.
All in all I am very excited to see Parsons keep growing, as he has come a long way already in his baseball career. From playing baseball at a small Division 3 school, going undrafted, playing indy ball, and now as a non roster invitee in spring training. His next step will be playing well in Double-A and Triple-A before making his MLB debut.
Feel free to leave a comment, question or suggestion down below. You can reach out to me on social media as I am always available for a conversation about baseball or any sport for that matter.
All stats from Fangraphs, and Baseball Reference.
Featured image, courtesy of MLB.com.
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