Thomas Eager enters his eighth season on The Farm in 2025, arriving prior to the 2018 season alongside the Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball David Esquer.
Eager, who serves as pitching coach and recruiting coordinator, has helped Stanford to a combined 248-125 (.665) overall record during his time on The Farm. Over that span, the Cardinal has won a trio of Pac-12 titles in 2018, 2022 and 2023, captured the inaugural 2022 Pac-12 Conference Tournament championship, has made five NCAA Regional appearances, four NCAA Super Regional appearances, and three consecutive College World Series appearances in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Prior to a 2024 season that saw Stanford finish 22-33 overall, Stanford made its third consecutive appearance in the College World Series in 2023 - including its 19th in program history. The Cardinal finished the year with a 44-20 overall record and a 23-7 mark in the Pac-12 to win the conference regular season championship for the second consecutive season. Stanford entered the postseason ranked No. 6 in the nation according to D1Baseball and won a regional featuring No. 25 Texas A&M, Cal State Fullerton and San Jose State to advance and host a super regional. The Cardinal won three consecutive elimination games in the regional, including defeating No. 25 Texas A&M twice, before winning two more against Texas in the super regional to punch a ticket to Omaha. Stanford hurlers paced the Pac-12 in strikeouts per game (10.47) while registering a program-record 671 strikeouts to lead the Pac-12 and rank sixth in the nation. For the third consecutive season, Stanford was home to the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year, as Quinn Mathews earned the honor to help Stanford capture four of the five major year-end awards. Mathews would ultimately earn a spot on the Golden Spike Award Semifinalist list. Stanford placed 12 players on the All-Pac-12 teams, with pitchers Ryan Bruno, Mathews and Braden Montgomery earning spots on the first team. Five different Cardinal players earned All-America honors, including Bruno, Montgomery and Mathews from the pitching staff. Capping the stellar season, Eager saw four of his pitchers selected in the 2023 MLB Draft - Mathews (4th round, Cardinals), Bruno (7th round, Diamondbacks), Joey Dixon (7th round, Astros) and Drew Dowd (8th round, Rays).
Providing highlights to the 2024 season on the mound, freshman left-handed pitcher Christian Lim earned Freshman All-America honors and landed on the Pac-12 All-Conference team, while Matt Scott led the Pac-12 in strikeouts.
Stanford made its second consecutive appearance in the College World Series in 2022, finishing the year with a 47-18 overall record and a 21-9 mark in the Pac-12 to win both the Pac-12 regular season and inaugural Pac-12 Tournament championships. Stanford, which entered the College World Series ranked No. 1 in the nation according to Collegiate Baseball, finished the year ranked No. 5 in the D1Baseball poll. On the pitching side, Stanford led the Pac-12 in shutouts (9) and ranked third in ERA (4.23). Stanford's 47 wins were the eighth-most in program history, while the nine shutouts ranked fifth. The Cardinal placed eight on All-Pac-12 teams, including Alex Williams, Quinn Mathews and Braden Montgomery from the pitching staff, and secured four of the five major Pac-12 yearly awards - with Williams winning Pitcher of the Year and Montgomery taking home Freshman of the Year. Williams was named a semifinalist for the 2022 College Baseball Hall of Fame National Pitcher of the Year Award and earned unanimous All-America honors, while Montgomery was a semifinalist for the 2022 John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year and earned Freshman All-America honors. The Cardinal saw six players drafted in the 2022 MLB Draft, including Williams (11th round, Marlins) and Mathews (19th round, Rays).
In 2021, Stanford made its return to Omaha and finished the year ranked No. 5 according to Collegiate Baseball after going 39-17 and 17-10 in Pac-12 play to claim third place in the conference standings, dropping back-to-back games just once and finishing the year 12-1 in weekend series. Right-hander Brendan Beck went 9-3 with a 3.15 ERA (fifth in the Pac-12) over 17 appearances and 15 starts en route to being named 2021 Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year. Beck, a unanimous All-America selection and the No. 55 overall selection in the 2021 MLB draft, was joined by fellow hurler Zach Grech as All-Americans. Four Stanford pitchers also garnered All-Conference recognition, with Grech securing Pac-12 Scholar Athlete of the Year.
In Eager's second season on The Farm, Stanford's 2019 pitching staff registered a 3.62 ERA as the Cardinal finished 45-14 – good for the fifth-best winning percentage (.763) in program history. The Cardinal finished the season having reached a Super Regional for the 11th time in program history, including the first berth since 2014. Stanford pitchers issued a league-low 182 walks and Jack Little set the all-time program record in saves with 28 for his career.
Eager led Stanford to a 2.83 ERA in 2018, marking the 11th-lowest clip in team history and second-lowest in the nation. Two of Eager’s starting pitchers – right-hander Tristan Beck and left-hander Kris Bubic – were drafted in the opening four rounds of the 2018 MLB Draft, while Little tied a program record with 16 saves and finished with a 0.60 ERA, 58 strikeouts and eight walks across 45.1 innings.
Prior to coming to Stanford, Eager also oversaw the pitching staff for Esquer at Cal for two seasons, including working with the 2016 first-round selection of the Oakland Athletics, Daulton Jefferies. Eager held the same role at Cal Poly for three seasons, where the Mustangs had seven pitchers drafted, and posted the lowest ERA in the school's Division I history (3.05) in 2014 en route to a Division I program-record 47 wins and No. 1 seed at the NCAA Regionals.
Before his promotion to pitching coach, Eager spent two seasons as the Director of Operations for his alma mater, Cal Poly, where he pitched in 2006 and 2007. The Visalia, Calif. native finished his sophomore season with the Mustangs in 2007 with an 11-3 ledger, notching a 3.43 ERA with 99 strikeouts in 126 innings of work on his way to first-team All-Big West Conference accolades.
A fifth-round draft pick in 2007, Eager spent four years in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He reached as high as Double-A and posted a 15-21 record during his professional career.
A three-year varsity letterman, Eager was a first-team All-Central California Conference selection as a senior at Merced High School. He was also a second-team all-conference choice as a junior and helped the Bears to a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section title as a sophomore in 2002.
Eager earned a bachelor of science degree in business management from the University of Phoenix in May of 2012 after studying business administration at Cal Poly.
Eager and his wife, Jenna, have three sons, Trey, Blake and Beau.