Keegan Thompson Leads Surging Auburn

AUBURN, Ala.—Keegan Thompson took the mound at Plainsman Park on Feb. 17 against George Washington as Auburn’s Opening Day starter. It was his first start since he had Tommy John surgery in June 2015 and sat out last season as he recovered from the injury.

Thompson’s return to the mound got off to a bit of a shaky start. The leadoff batter battled him throughout a 10-pitch at bat that ended with left fielder Bo Decker making a diving catch. The next batter doubled, only to be thrown out by center fielder Jonah Todd trying to stretch it into a triple. The next batter followed with a single, but was erased while trying to steal second base.

Thompson settled into the game from there, allowing just two more hits and a walk. He finished the start with six scoreless innings and earned the win as Auburn defeated George Washington, 9-0.

“The defense really calmed my nerves down that first game,” Thompson said. “It just kind of went on from there.”

Since that first inning, Thompson has been outstanding this season for Auburn (23-8), which surged to No. 7 in the Top 25 this week after winning its first three Southeastern Conference series. In six starts this season, he is 4-0, 0.70 with a 0.72 WHIP. The only hitch in Thompson’s spectacular first half was a bout of shoulder tendonitis that led him to leave his March 24 start at Georgia after four innings and miss the next weekend. But he is slated to return to the rotation this weekend and pitch Saturday at Texas A&M.

Coach Butch Thompson (no relation) said he thinks Keegan Thompson’s competitiveness has helped him recover from surgery. And that competiveness leads the coach to believe the ace hasn’t peaked yet this season.

“He’s very competitive,” Butch Thompson said. “(He’s) quiet, I don’t talk to him during the ballgame, he’s locked in. He’s one of those. He’s competing at that level and I still think he’s got some game to bring along.”

Keegan Thompson has long been known as a competitor. He twice started and won gold medal games for USA Baseball while in high school. He was a two-way player as a freshman before settling in as Auburn’s Friday starter as a sophomore.

So it is no surprise that when he was unable to compete on the diamond last year, Thompson found other outsets for his competitiveness. He spent a lot of time working out, firming up his 6-foot-2, 209-pound frame.

Thompson has added about 25 pounds since his senior year of high school, when he was Alabama’s Gatorade Player of the Year. Butch Thompson said the biggest change he has seen in Keegan Thompson since the times he scouted the pitcher in high school is his build.

“I can tell he wants to play,” the coach said. “He’s really serious about it because his body’s changed. He’s turned into a man since the first time I saw him. Even as a competitor. Once he’s had this 20 months in between (starts), his body’s changed. He’s paid attention to his body and he’s went after it.”

Thompson’s fastball still sits around 90 mph, and he mixes in a changeup, curveball and slider. His breaking balls both can get swings and misses, but more than anything, Thompson stands out for his pitchability. He works efficiently, getting ahead in the count and producing a lot of weak contact. He has given up just four extra-base hits in his first six starts this season, and opponents hit .158 against him.

Butch Thompson, the 2014 Assistant Coach of the Year, was a renowned pitching coach before being hired from Mississippi State to take over as Auburn’s head coach in the fall of 2015. He still serves as the Tigers’ pitching coach, and has been impressed with how advanced his ace is.

“I think Keegan Thompson is one of the most efficient starters I’ve been around in a while, meaning he can get to eight innings not at 100 pitches,” the coach said. “He is so competitive, yet he’s not prideful, trying to rack up 10 strikeouts. I think he’s really happy with four strikeouts, no walks and finishing what he starts.”

When Butch Thompson arrived on the Plains, he brought with him a philosophy of allowing the Tigers’ pitchers and catchers to call their own games. Keegan Thompson and catcher Blake Logan, who have been playing together since they were in middle school and are roommates, have taken to the new system. Thompson understands how to attack hitters and has a keen ability to read hitters’ swings and take advantage of their weaknesses.

Because Thompson and Logan have played together so long, they are typically on the same page when it comes to pitch selection. They have such a strong connection that it became difficult to play MLB The Show against each other, which they did a lot when Thompson was injured last year. The game has a feature that allows the player batting to guess what pitch his opponent will throw. When the player guesses correctly, it highlight’s the pitch’s location on screen and gives the batter a boost.

“We would guess each other’s pitch all the time,” Logan said. “Then we’d get fed up with that and we’d play basketball.”
Thompson has been getting a lot of hitters fed up this season. This is why he decided to come back to Auburn instead of signing after the draft last season. He was selected in the 33rd round by the Tigers, but likely would have gone much higher if he had let teams know he was interested in starting his professional career. He figures to go in the top three to five rounds this June.

But Thompson didn’t want to end his Auburn career sidelined while the Tigers endured a 23-33 season and missed the SEC Tournament.

“I think I just wanted to come back and had something left to prove,” he said. “We hadn’t done as well as we’d like to the last few years. We got to a regional my sophomore year and came back last year and kind of struggled a little bit defensively and pitching wise, and that was one thing I wanted to come back and help out with.”

Returning for another year will also allow Thompson to finish his college degree, which he said is important to his mother Phyllis, who used to be a teacher. He is on track to graduate in May.

On the field, Thompson has more than done his part to get the Tigers back to the postseason. He has also mentored rotation-mates sophomore righthander Casey Mize (4-1, 1.58), who has first-round potential next season, and freshman righthander Davis Daniel (2-1, 4.83).

“He’s a leader,” Mize said. “Not a vocal leader, but he leads by example because his name kind of says it by itself. It’s been awesome to be able to learn from him.”

With Thompson leading an impressive rotation, Auburn has been difficult to beat this season. But he said the Tigers aren’t looking ahead to late May and June. Instead, he said they want to keep their focus on playing as well as they can every day.

“The goal is to go out there and play the game as it’s supposed to be played,” he said. “As long as we do that I think the game will take care of itself. I don’t think we really have to worry about the future and postseason play as long as we do what we’re supposed to do, play the game the right way, put good at bats, throw strikes, I think it will lay out for us the way we want it to be.”