photo by: AP Photo/Matt Rourke

Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson, center, and the team walk onto the field ahead to their home-opener baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Monday, March 31, 2025, in Philadelphia.

The 162-game Major League Baseball season has crossed its halfway point, and the minor leagues are soon to be flooded with new talent when the MLB Draft concludes on July 14 in Cumberland, Georgia.

Having just completed one of its best seasons in recent years, the Kansas baseball program is likely to have some players selected over the course of the two-day, 10-round draft.

This all provides an opportune moment to check in on the Jayhawks currently climbing the baseball ladder. In the playing ranks, they are headlined by former KU reliever Ryan Zeferjahn, a member of the Los Angeles Angels’ bullpen this season. But the most prominent Jayhawk in baseball right now is a manager.

That would be Rob Thomson of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Thomson, who is originally from Sarnia, Ontario, was a three-year catcher for KU after one season in the JUCO ranks, and a two-time recipient of the team’s Gib Francis MVP award. His .443 batting average in 1984 still ranks as the best single-season mark in program history.

He was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 32nd round of the 1985 MLB Draft and made it to Class A before moving into coaching in 1988. After two years, he began a nearly three-decade-long tenure with the New York Yankees, initially coaching third base for their Class A affiliate and rising through the organization’s ranks, including a brief stint in its front office.

In 2008, Thomson served his first stint as a major-league manager in three games on an interim basis in place of an ailing Joe Girardi. He served on the Yankees’ staff as a bench coach, third base coach and bench coach once again until New York fired Girardi in 2017.

Thomson moved to the Phillies as their bench coach, sticking around through the dismissal of Gabe Kapler in time for a reunion with Girardi, whom Philadelphia hired in 2019. The breakout season, such as it was, for Thomson came 34 years into his coaching career, when the sub-.500 Phillies let Girardi go midway through 2022 and Thomson helped the team storm back and eventually secure a playoff berth.

That would have been impressive enough, but then Philadelphia extended its run all the way from the wild-card round to the World Series, sweeping St. Louis and breezing past Atlanta in San Diego in five games apiece before eventually falling to the Houston Astros in six.

All of that after, as he later revealed to The Athletic, he had been planning on making 2022 his last season because he thought he was becoming “stale” as a coach.

Instead, he took over as the Phillies’ permanent manager — a decision cemented after he had won just one playoff series — and continued to experience success each of the past two seasons, leading Philadelphia to the NLCS in 2023 and an NL West title in 2024 before losing in the NLDS. This year, he again has the Phillies vying for the division lead, a game and a half ahead of the suddenly struggling New York Mets prior to Monday’s action. His contract now runs through the end of 2026.

The other Jayhawk currently visible in MLB action is Zeferjahn, who has made a distinct enough impression since arriving in the pros last summer that a FanGraphs article earlier this season called him “basically unhittable and largely anonymous.”

photo by: AP Photo/Jayne Kamin-Oncea

Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Ryan Zeferjahn earns a save during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox, Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in Anaheim, Calif.

The Topeka native, a Ritch Price-era Jayhawk who started 42 games from 2017 to 2019, was a two-time all-conference selection, including first-team honors in his final year. He had 107 strikeouts that season and 260 in his career.

Zeferjahn was drafted in the third round by the Boston Red Sox at No. 107 overall, which makes him the sixth-highest draft pick in KU history. The 6-foot-5 righty worked his way up through the minors but really hit his stride in 2024, when he earned a promotion to Triple-A Worcester after pitching 13 2/3 innings without an earned run in his first seven appearances at Double-A Portland.

Eighteen games and one start into his Worcester tenure, Zeferjahn was traded to the Los Angeles Angels as part of Boston’s deal for major-league pitcher Luis García. Zeferjahn posted a 2.35 ERA through five appearances before receiving a call-up from the struggling Angels. He maintained his momentum quite effectively and allowed just four earned runs on seven hits in 17 innings the rest of the season, striking out 18 while walking six.

Zeferjahn has been a fixture in Los Angeles’ bullpen this season. A few uneven outings in the month of May caused his ERA to creep over 5.00, but he got it back down to 4.78 with a solid June (12 appearances, 11 1/3 innings pitched, 10 strikeouts and five walks).

The FanGraphs article, published in April by Ben Clemens, centered on a deep analysis of Zeferjahn’s unusual pitch set. It includes a description of his cutter, his primary pitch, as one that “makes batters look uncomfortable because they can’t quite classify whether it’s a fastball or a breaking ball.” The cutter accompanied by a four-seam fastball and a slider.

Clemens suggests that Zeferjahn’s inconsistent control of the strike zone could cause him trouble down the line, but his conclusion (granted, at a time during the year when Zeferjahn was pitching slightly better) was that “As long as he maintains his current combination of pitch shapes and command, the data speak loudly: This is one of the top relievers in baseball.”

Will any more Jayhawks join Zeferjahn at the highest level as the season progresses?

Wes Benjamin, a top KU arm from 2012 to 2014 until he had to undergo Tommy John surgery, has been to the majors before as part of the Texas Rangers. He pitched in 21 games with three starts between 2020 and 2021. After a three-year detour playing in South Korea, he returned to the minor leagues on a deal with the San Diego Padres for the 2025 season. Through 16 games at Triple-A El Paso, Benjamin is far and away the Chihuahuas’ leader in innings pitched, but is 3-4 with a 5.76 ERA.

Blake Weiman, another pitcher, was an eighth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2017. He has reached Triple-A with four different organizations. In 2024, Weiman was with the Chicago Cubs and excelled at Double-A Tennessee, where he went 4-0 with a 2.77 ERA in 42 games, walking eight batters while striking out 52. He only earned one appearance in Triple-A that season but has been back at that level full-time in 2025 with the Sugar Land Space Cowboys in the Houston Astros’ organization; however, he has struggled at times, allowing 12 earned runs in five innings in May, and only pitched once in June.

Jaxx Groshans, a former KU catcher also picked by the Red Sox in 2019 along with Zeferjahn, was playing independent baseball the last two seasons for the Lake Country DockHounds and Cleburne Railroaders but is now also in the Angels’ organization, currently at the Double-A level with the Rocket City Trash Pandas.

KU coach Dan Fitzgerald and pitching coach Brandon Scott have said at various points that they think their former pitcher Collin Baumgartner (who was also Scott’s first-ever Division I recruit at SIUE) is very close to reaching the majors with the Colorado Rockies.

photo by: Hartford Yard Goats

Collin Baumgartner pitches for the Hartford Yard Goats in this undated photo at Dunkin’ Park in Hartford, Conn.

As the Rockies struggle through one of the worst seasons in recent MLB history, Baumgartner has continued to pitch well at Double-A Hartford, where since arriving midway through 2024 he has posted a 2.61 ERA in 76 games.

The other Jayhawk from Fitzgerald’s tenure to reach Double-A, technically, is onetime KU closer Hunter Cranton, the anchor of the bullpen in the Jayhawks’ 2024 campaign who is the highest-drafted KU player since 1990. Cranton was pitching for the Seattle Mariners in spring training when he was hit by a comebacker and has reportedly dealt with concussion symptoms since, so he has not actually gotten the chance to appear for the Double-A Arkansas Travelers. Instead, he’s recently returned to action after several months away with a pair of rehab assignments in the Arizona Complex League.

Seven additional Jayhawks besides Cranton turned pro last season — Tegan Cain, Reese Dutton, J’Briell Easley, Ben Hartl, Ethan Lanthier, Evan Shaw and Kodey Shojinaga — and most are at the Single-A level. Cain and Lanthier on the full-season injured list. Dutton was recently promoted to the High-A Jersey Shore BlueClaws but was then placed on the development list, which allows him to remain with the team without participating in games. Shaw is also in High-A.

There are also a handful of other players in this general realm of the lower minor leagues who played for KU through 2022 and transferred elsewhere amid the coaching change, though none who seem imminently headed for the majors.