As the son of a professional drag racer, Lane Thomas knows the value of a fast start. So perhaps it was no surprise that he homered in his first major-league at-bat.
Lane’s father, Mike, was a professional drag racer in the National Hot Rod Association, and Lane spent his early summers traveling around the country, watching his father race.[1] For a while, he thought he might make his career at the track as well. Then he discovered baseball.
“I kind of figured out that was going to be a little bit too much adrenaline for me,” Thomas said. “Those guys are running some crazy times. They are going a quarter mile in like six seconds at 200-something miles per hour. I think I’m going to stick to having something fly at me.”[2]
A Knoxville native, Thomas committed to the University of Tennessee as a sophomore at Bearden High School, even before batting .410 with 17 homers and 40 RBIs his senior season. His plans to play for the Volunteers changed, however, when the Blue Jays drafted him in the fifth round of the 2014 draft.[3]
“He’s a sure-fire pro prospect, no question,” Bearden assistant coach Jack Tate said. “He has all the tools.”[4]
Thomas was assigned to Toronto’s High-A affiliate in Dunedin of the Florida State League to start the 2017 season. There, he hit .252 with four homers and 38 RBIs in 73 games before he was traded to the Cardinals for international signing bonus cap space.
Injuries limited Thomas to just nine games for the Cardinals’ Palm Beach affiliate that season, but in 2018 St. Louis assigned him to Double-A Springfield to open the season. In 100 games, he hit .260/.337/.487 with 21 homers and 67 RBIs. He played his final 32 games with Triple-A Memphis, batting .275 with six homers and 21 RBIs. It was the breakout season Thomas needed.
That November, the Cardinals added Thomas to the 40-man roster. After Harrison Bader and Tyler O’Neill both went down with injuries, the Cardinals promoted Thomas to the majors on April 17, 2019. He played two innings of the Cardinals’ 6-3 win over the Brewers but didn’t get to take an at-bat as the game ended with him standing in the on-deck circle.
Two days later, he wasn’t about to miss his opportunity.
The Mets led St. Louis 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth when Dexter Fowler hit a one-out double. After Mets reliever Seth Lugo struck out Kolten Wong, Schildt called upon Thomas to take his first major-league at-bat. Lugo challenged him with an outside fastball on the first pitch, then tried the same pitch again. Thomas proved a fast learner, hitting the second pitch over the top of the right-field wall.
“It was pretty surreal,” Thomas said. “It’s the stuff you dream about when I was a kid.”[5]
Initially, the play appeared to be a triple before the umpires viewed the replay and ruled that the ball had indeed hit the top of the wall and struck a sign behind the outfield wall before bouncing back into play.
“My heart was beating a little quick, so I don’t even remember what I was thinking,” Thomas said.[6]
The blast made him just the 10th Cardinal in history to homer in his first major-league at-bat, joining Eddie Morgan (1936), Wally Moon (1954, story here), Keith McDonald (2000), Chris Richard (2000), Gene Stechschulte (2001), Hector Luna (2004), Adam Wainwright (2006), Mark Worrell (2008), and DeJong (2017).
After Thomas returned to the dugout, his teammates convinced him to give the Busch Stadium fans a curtain call.
“That was the coolest part – looking up and seeing everyone cheer,” Thomas said. “It was awesome. I don’t think it could have gone any better.”[7]
It also cut the Mets’ lead to 5-3. Yadier Molina scored in the eighth on a ground ball by Fowler to make the score 5-4, but in the ninth inning, New York’s Edwin Diaz retired Molina with runners on first and third to earn his seventh save of the season.
Thomas stayed on the shuttle between Memphis and St. Louis throughout the season, batting .316 with four homers and 12 RBIs in 44 plate appearances.
“I saw him a lot in my rehab starts last season,” said Wainwright, who was limited to just eight starts in 2018 due to an elbow injury. “He was one of the four guys I came back and reported that ‘these guys are big-league players.’ I think we’re going to see a lot of him.”[8]
Lane played parts of three seasons for St. Louis, batting .172 with five homers and 15 RBIs before he was traded to the Washington Nationals for pitcher Jon Lester ahead of the 2021 trade deadline.
Thomas played 424 games for the Nationals across four seasons, batting .257 with 60 homers, 205 RBIs, and 60 stolen bases before he was traded to Cleveland in 2024. In Cleveland, he hit .316 with two homers and nine RBIs in the ALDS, including a go-ahead grand slam in Game 5.
He signed a one-year contract with the Royals for of the 2026 season.
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[1] Drew Hill, “Outfielder Lane Thomas’ peculiar journey from NHRA to baseball,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, August 23, 2018.
[2] Drew Hill, “Outfielder Lane Thomas’ peculiar journey from NHRA to baseball,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, August 23, 2018.
[3] “Bearden’s Thomas named 1st Team HS baseball All-American,” USA Today, June 25, 2014, https://usatodayhss.com/2014/beardens-thomas-named-1st-team-hs-baseball-all-american.
[4] Mike Blackerby, “Bearden’s Lane Thomas commits to play at Tennessee,” Knoxville News Sentinel, August 25, 2012.
[5] Rick Hummel, “Cardinals drop one,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 21, 2019.
[6] Rick Hummel, “Cardinals drop one,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 21, 2019.
[7] Rick Hummel, “Cardinals drop one,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 21, 2019.
[8] Rick Hummel, “Cardinals drop one,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 21, 2019.