Trent Thornton

Trent Edward Thornton (born September 30, 1993) is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Toronto Blue Jays. Amateur career Thornton graduated from Ardrey Kell High School in Charlotte, North Carolina, and enrolled at the University of North Carolina to play college baseball for the North Carolina Tar Heels. As a freshman he had a 12–1 win–loss record with a 1.37 earned run average (ERA) in 29 games played. As a sophomore he went 7–4 with a 2.73 ERA in 16 games, including 14 starts. In 2014, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Orleans Firebirds of the Cape Cod Baseball League. As a junior, he went 3–7 with a 5.08 ERA in 28 appearances (four of which were starts). After his junior year, he was selected by the Houston Astros in the fifth round of the 2015 Major League Baseball draft and he signed. Professional career Houston Astros Thornton made his professional debut that season with the Low-A Tri-City Valley Cats and spent the whole season there, going 4–0 with a 3.27 ERA in 15 games (12 starts). In 2016, he played for the High-A Lancaster JetHawks and the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks, compiling a combined 10–5 record with a 3.52 ERA in 24 games (21 starts), and in 2017, he pitched for Corpus Christi and the Triple-A Fresno Grizzlies, posting a 9–6 record and a 5.21 ERA in 25 games (23 starts) between the two clubs. He spent 2018 with Fresno. He was named the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week for June 11–17 after pitching 7 scoreless innings in which he allowed only one hit (given up with two outs in the eighth inning) to go along with two walks. In 24 games (22 starts) for the Grizzlies, Thornton went 9–8 with a 4.42 ERA.