Bradley Richard Thomas (born 22 October 1977) is a former Australian professional baseball pitcher. He has previously played in MLB for the Minnesota Twins, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, where he was largely utilized in a relief role with limited innings. Across his MLB career, Thomas posted an ERA nearly two runs higher than the league average for relief pitchers during his playing era.
He played in Nippon Professional Baseball for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters and in the Korea Baseball Organization for the Hanwha Eagles and Chinese Professional Baseball League for the Brother Elephants and Chinatrust Brothers. In 2008, while playing for the Brother Elephants in Taiwan's CPBL, Brad Thomas was suspended for testing positive for a banned stimulant, as reported in Taiwanese league summaries and contemporary media reports.
He bats and throws left-handed. Thomas retired from professional baseball and has not pursued further professional endeavours of significance. He currently resides in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Professional career
Thomas signed as an undrafted free agent in 1995 by the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers released him on 9 May 1997, due to visa issues with the government, and three days later, he signed with the Minnesota Twins. Thomas became the No. 1 pitching prospect with the Twins from 1998 to 2004. Thomas was a 4-time All-Star in the minor leagues and a World All-Star (2001 Futures Game). Thomas played in the majors with the Twins between 2001 and 2004 appearing in 101 games. Thomas was traded to the World Champion Boston Red Sox in 2004. In 2005, Thomas signed with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of Japan. Thomas played for them from 2005 to 2006, appearing in 119 games as a relief pitcher. Compiling a 2.9 ERA over 2 seasons. Thomas was a member of the 2006 Japan Series and 2006 Asia Series Champions.
Thomas signed with the Seattle Mariners for the 2007 season.
In 2008, Thomas signed with the Hanwha Eagles in the Korea Baseball Organization. During his two years in the KBO league, he had 44 saves with a 5–1 record and a 2.06 ERA as the closer for the Eagles. He owns the KBO single season (120 Games) record for Saves, with 33 in 2008.
Thomas signed a major league contract with the Detroit Tigers on 7 December 2009. He spent the entire 2010 season pitching out of the Tigers bullpen, compiling a 6–2 record with a 3.89 ERA in 69-1/3 innings. He made 2 spot starts for Detroit vs Texas Rangers and New York Yankees.
In 2011, Thomas started the season once again as a regular in Detroit Tigers strong Bullpen. After coming off a great spring training, he was placed on the 15-day disabled list on 11 May, with minor left elbow inflammation. On 25 July 2011, Thomas was placed on the 60-day disabled list, where he finished the season with the American League runners-up.
In 2012, Thomas signed with Brother Elephants of the Chinese Professional Baseball League in Taiwan, where he became their closer and had a dominant season. He had a 3–0 record, 23 saves and 66 strikeouts in 48 innings over 41 games with a 0.75 only ERA less than 1.
In 2013, Thomas started the 2013 CPBL season as the closer and the pitching coach but stood down to concentrate on pitching. However, Thomas still shut the most doors and dominated the whole season with a 1.00 ERA and 26 saves. His performance helped him become the saves leader for the second consecutive season.
In July 2014, Thomas agreed to rejoin the Brothers for the month. Thomas saved his 100th Asian Professional League (NPB, KBO, CPBL) game on 7/4/2014 and continued by saving five games in the first week.
International career and Olympics
Thomas was a member of the Australian national baseball team and competed at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where the team did not medal. Following this, he adopted the surname "Oly," a personal tribute to his Olympic appearance. Thomas was later ruled ineligible to compete in the 2004 Athens Olympics due to a doping violation. He is recognised in the Australia Sportspeople in doping cases. His exclusion was due to previous positive drug tests, which made him ineligible under Olympic anti-doping standards. This incident effectively ended his opportunity to represent Australia at the Olympics again. This, combined with a later suspension in Taiwan’s CPBL for testing positive for a banned stimulant, marred the latter stages of his professional career.
He subsequently quickly left Taiwain and represented Australia at the 2009 and 2013 World Baseball Classics, serving as the team's closing pitcher. However, Australia's campaigns were short-lived, with early exits in both tournaments — notably failing to win a single game in 2013.
9/11 incident
Thomas was a member of the Minnesota Twins Double-A Affiliate, competing in the 2001 playoffs. He had originally scheduled a flight to Australia for 11 September 2001. His original flight, via Los Angeles, was American Airlines Flight 11 that hit the World Trade Center. Michael Cuddyer hit a walk-off home run to send the team to the second round of the playoffs, forcing Thomas to change his flight plans.