July 12, 2024 // Diocese

Dwenger Pitcher Seeking God’s Will in ‘Life-Changing Decision’

Eric Peat

With the MLB Draft approaching, Brayton Thomas Awaits What’s Next on the Diamond

Brayton Thomas was in a jam.

The senior pitcher for the Bishop Dwenger baseball team had just allowed three straight batters on base as he struggled to find the zone. Bases were loaded with no outs. A dozen professional scouts were watching his every move. Head Coach Jason Garrett called for time and trotted to the mound to talk to his ace.

“Listen, man,” Garrett recalled telling Thomas. “All these people behind me already know you have the ability. This moment right here is why they’re here – they want to see how you respond to this. It’s about how you deal with this moment.”

Thomas put his head down and went to work. Strikeout, strikeout, strikeout. Inning over.

It’s a midseason memory that lives on for both Garrett and Thomas, as it encapsulated not only the Saints’ 2024 season but also Thomas’ baseball journey.

“I struggled before, and I knew how to deal with adversity, anything that came my way,” Thomas told Today’s Catholic. “Whether that be leaning on God or things you’ve gone through in the past – learning how to deal with failure to lead you to success. God will put you in tough spots, and it’s how you respond to them.”

Thomas’ response has been nothing short of phenomenal. The star southpaw just wrapped up a stellar high school career, pitching Bishop Dwenger to its first regional title since 2014 and winning the Dick Crumback Award as the Northeast Indiana Baseball Association Player of the Year.

Although he’s committed to playing collegiately at Indiana University, Thomas’ 6-foot-4 frame and polished delivery have caused a rapid rise in his professional draft stock. He now faces what he calls a “life-changing decision” with the 2024 Major League Baseball draft taking place July 14-16 – namely, does he continue refining his skills at the college level in Bloomington or fulfill a lifelong dream and sign a professional contract with the Major League Baseball team that drafts him. It’s a choice that Thomas is approaching with the utmost integrity and diligence as he seeks the will of God on the baseball diamond.

‘He Always Wanted to Play Baseball’

It’s no exaggeration to say that Thomas’ baseball journey began at birth.

“I literally remember the day he came home from the hospital,” said his father, Stephen. “I would go into the basement and watch Cubs games. I remember him just opening his eyes, looking at the TV, and not fussing whatsoever. I would watch every single inning of every single game. I was obsessed with baseball, and it probably led to him loving it.”

Stephen spent countless hours with Thomas after work on the St. Joe Little League fields in Fort Wayne, catching, pitching, hitting, and teaching his son every position. During the day, Thomas’ mother, Amanda, followed suit.

“He always wanted to play ball,” Amanda recalled. “I’d constantly be tossing balls to him, apologizing to the neighbors for always being in their yard. When [his younger brother] Landon came, playing catch was the daily thing.”

At age 7, Thomas was playing up a year with the 8-year-old Little League team, which was coached by his dad. Stephen continued coaching and challenging his son as he transitioned to travel ball, first with the New Haven Bulldogs and then with the Summit City Vipers in Fort Wayne.

“My dad was hard on me, really hard on me,” Thomas said. “Just tough love from your dad, and that was awesome. He was usually harder on me than any other person on the team, which was hard at the time, being 12-13 years old, but it was a good experience.”

Dan Oplinger, who also coached Thomas with the Vipers, remembers Thomas taking it all in stride.

“He was just a quiet kid, very receptive to any coaching,” Oplinger said. “If he had a problem, he would come and ask what he needed to do. He was the perfect team player and had a passion for the game. … I always told him he can do whatever he wants to do, because he’s that talented. He just has to work hard and stay committed.”

‘The best decision we’ve made’

As his older teammates moved on to high school and Thomas began eighth grade, his parents knew it was the right time to explore a better team in Thomas’ age group. One of his teammates’ father suggested the Indiana Bulls, the state’s premiere travel team in Indianapolis.

“He called the Bulls coach and said, ‘I’ve got a left-handed pitcher,’ and the coach said, ‘There are no left-handed pitchers in the state that can play here yet,’” Stephen recounted. “He said, ‘Well, I’ve got one.’ The Bulls’ tryouts had hundreds of kids. We went down that night, and Brayton was awesome. The coach didn’t let us get out of parking lot without offering him a spot.”

However, joining the team wasn’t so simple. It would mean several drives to Indianapolis each week, with every practice and game being in Indianapolis – or farther away – not to mention all the homework Thomas would have to do in the car, along with the cost of gas and lodging when necessary. When Stephen and Amanda laid out the pros and cons to Thomas, they got a straightforward response.

“He looked at me and said, ‘But what’s the point of all of this?’” Amanda said. “So, I asked him, ‘What is the point?’ And he said, ‘So I can play in college and play in the big leagues!’ The kid has dreams, and what parent isn’t going to help him get there?”

Thomas spent the next four summers with the Indiana Bulls, travelling to the likes of Georgia, North Carolina, California, and Arizona to face the best competition in the country.

The Thomases were able to make the long-distance commitment work thanks to a full family effort. Thomas’ grandparents drove him to Indianapolis on numerous occasions, and he was able to stay at his uncle’s house in Fishers whenever he needed to.

“It was tough,” Stephen said, “but it’s the best baseball decision we’ve made for him to this point.”

His family’s sacrifices aren’t lost on Thomas.

“My parents mean everything – my parents are my biggest supporters, them and my brother,” Thomas said of Landon. “I have so much love and support for him because he goes out and he does his own thing and tries to make a name for himself and is making a name for himself. He just has his own hobbies, and I love that he can be different in that kind of way.”

‘God Entrusted Him with Immense Talent’

Once Thomas reached high school, it didn’t take long for Garrett to notice him. Thomas jumped off the field – literally.

During a preseason workout in 32-degree weather, the Bishop Dwenger coaches were hitting flyballs on the football field under the stadium lights. Thomas, who had just finished basketball practice, immediately got in on the fun.

“I’m on one end of the field, and I just hear all the air go out of the stadium,” Garrett said. “Brayton was chasing a fly ball, and he dives across the track and catches fly ball. I went up to him and told him, ‘Great job, I love the effort, but we don’t need you diving across the track. Just let those ones go.’”

“I lay out on the track, get a couple bruises and scrapes, but that’s just kind of the effort that I like to go at,” Thomas explained. “One hundred percent at anything, whether that be my faith, in workouts, on the baseball field, off the baseball field.”

Thomas made the varsity squad as a freshman and became a four-year starter for the Saints. Garrett said Thomas’ Christ-centered leadership is what made him so invaluable to the team.

“He’s fun-loving, he has fun in the dugout, he’s humble, he handles all distractions with the greatest integrity, he’s a hard worker, he’s coachable – he has it all,” Garrett said.

“I couldn’t be more thankful for Coach Garrett, just because he’s loved me through it all,” Thomas said. “We’ve spent the past four years with each other, whether that be in the school, in church, or on the baseball field. So, we’ve gotten to know each other really well, and I have high praise for Coach G.”

“We’ve been extremely blessed over the years with coaches, but Jason Garrett is just an amazing human being,” agreed Stephen, explaining how Garrett would have his team do service projects during road trips. “I can’t imagine not having a faith-based education where teachers care so much, teach you to be kind, to be a godly man. I know Dwenger really helped [Brayton] with that.”

This was never more evident than on a senior men’s retreat this past spring, in which Thomas was prayed over and felt the Spirit at work.

“That was the most impactful moment of my life,” Thomas said. “There was a healing service, and I’ve never been in a moment where I’ve felt that close to God. It’s like He took over my whole body. Bishop Dwenger putting me in those situations, I’m so grateful for that. I could go to the chapel anytime during the day. I could go talk to the guidance counselors, Coach G., anyone who I needed to talk to, they were there for me.”

Thomas’ time as a Saint didn’t come without trials. After outstanding freshman and sophomore campaigns on the diamond, Thomas struggled a bit as a junior with the mental side of the game and had to lean into Garrett’s preaching on levelheadedness. By his senior year, Thomas faced the scrutiny of a dozen professional scouts at every home game, most measuring his pitch speed with radar guns or recording him on camera. He was also limited by his professional advisor on his pitch count early in the season, which presented a challenge to Garrett against some of Dwenger’s toughest opponents.

Nevertheless, the Saints posted a 24-9 record this past season and captured their fourth straight Summit Athletic Conference crown. Bishop Dwenger topped Concordia 12-0 for a sectional title and edged Northwood 5-4 in regionals before falling in the semistate round to eventual state champion New Prairie. Thomas put together an impressive senior resume, finishing with a 1.47 ERA and 76 strikeouts in just 38 innings pitched, while also batting .373 and leading the team with 27 RBI.

Garrett said he couldn’t be prouder of how Thomas represented God, his family, and his team amid constant pressure all season.

“God entrusted him with immense talent,” Garrett said. “He’s done a lot to bring attention to our program by his presence and the way he bought into the program. I just love the kid to death.”

‘They’ve Never Had a Teammate Like Him’

To say that Thomas is in rare company at Bishop Dwenger is an understatement. In addition to becoming just the second district player of the year in school history with the Dick Crumback Award, Thomas also received a pair of prestigious honors from the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association, as he was named a North All-Star and selected to the all-state team as one of two pitchers in Indiana from Class 3A.

Yet while the accolades piled up for Thomas, his other-centered mindset never changed.

“The awards mean a lot, but there’s so much more to life, so much more inside the game of baseball that stats don’t show,” Thomas said. “I felt like I was a really good teammate this year. My team won regionals for the first time in 10 years. Just the success that I was a part of with the team, being a leader on that team, and helping the younger guys to be better in the future, that was what means the most. … There are nine guys on the field at once, and all those awards wouldn’t have been possible without my guys behind me. So, I’m thankful for the guys, thankful for the coaching staff that put me in those awesome positions.”

For those close to Thomas, this doesn’t come as a surprise. He’s the one taking the time to visit with adoring kids and sign autographs. He’s the one respectfully chatting with opponents during a game or offering an encouraging word to calm down a teammate. He’s the one spending his free time coaching middle schoolers and driving underclassmen to the gym so they can lift weights with him. This is the legacy that Thomas is leaving behind at Bishop Dwenger, and it’s what his parents are most proud of.

“The classes below him say they’ve never had a teammate like him, and he’s taught them so much about work ethic and humility,” Amanda said. “After semistate, the mom of one of the sophomores said as soon as she picked her son up, the first words out of his mouth were, ‘I’m going to miss Brayton.’”

Thomas credits his Catholic faith for helping him keep perspective on the game of baseball and its proper place in life. He occasionally posts phrases on the bathroom mirror at home to remind him what really matters, such as “No one cares more about you than your family” or “Keep strong with the Lord; He has you.” This faith-based approach to sports is what he advises aspiring young athletes to adopt.

“I would say it’s never too late to start believing and following the Lord,” Thomas said. “Praise the Lord for whatever He has given you. I have found that giving thanks to the Lord for what He has given us has helped me be a better person in whatever I do.”

‘I’m Just Trying to Listen to God’

The summer after Thomas’ freshman year, he held his own against top national prospects in the Prep Baseball Future Game in Georgia, showing that high-level college baseball was attainable. The following year, he committed to Indiana University.

“My heart fell in love with IU,” Thomas said. “I’ve always been an Indiana fan, and it felt like home. The coaches treated me with respect, they wanted me for who I was and the ballplayer and the person that I was.”

His mom agreed.

“When we met the coaches at IU, they were exactly the kind of men that we felt comfortable passing our son off to,” Amanda said. “One of them, the pitching coach, had converted to Catholicism, and the head coach is Christian and goes to church.”

Once professional scouts began vaulting Thomas up draft boards, his college plans became less clear. Currently, Thomas is projected to be a third- to fifth-round pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, thanks in part to being a big, left-handed pitcher. However, Thomas won’t automatically accept potential draft offers. He and his advisor have set a dollar amount in place, and if teams call and offer anything less, his advisor will decline the offers. Simply put, if Thomas’ name isn’t called, it doesn’t mean teams didn’t want him or didn’t try to draft him – it means they didn’t offer enough to lure him away from Bloomington.

“It’s very nerve-wracking right now, just because it’s all out of my hands,” Thomas admitted. “I’ve done what I could do, and now it’s up to the team if they want to take a shot on me or if they don’t.”

Stephen admits that while he gets “nervous for everything – every game, every pitch,” he says he is “not nervous about this in the least, because he has two amazing opportunities in front of him.”

Nevertheless, Thomas’ parents are helping him weigh both options. On one hand, professional baseball has always been his dream, and it is now within reach. He could become just the second pitcher drafted straight out of Bishop Dwenger, joining Andy Helmer in the 13th round of the 1996 draft. On the other hand, IU would allow Thomas to obtain an education, experience college life, receive instruction from top college coaches, and compete for a national championship. He would also be draft-eligible again after his sophomore year, based on his birthday.

Regardless of the path he takes, Oplinger sees a bright future for Thomas.

“He’s the real deal, and just a quality kid,” Oplinger said. “I say it all the time: He understands how to be successful, he’s got a good head on his shoulders, he’s humble, and he doesn’t take anything for granted. He just loves to compete.”

When the MLB Draft unfolds July 14-16, Thomas will be gathered with his immediate family at their home, enjoying the moment with those closest to him. In the meantime, he’ll be listening to the Lord and prayerfully discerning God’s will.

“My parents have been pushing me to follow my heart and pray to God, pray for what He wants me to do,” Thomas said. “My dad said, ‘God’s never put you in a bad situation with the team, so why would He do it now? Follow what your heart wants.’ So, I’m just trying to listen to God. Silent prayer, that’s big right now – just trying to listen to what He’s calling me to do.”