Injuries have unfortunately been the theme of 2025 for Cleveland Guardians outfielder Lane Thomas. However, he’s close to making an MLB return.
Lane Thomas has never been considered an injury-prone player throughout his MLB career, but he’s certainly had a hard time staying on the field in 2025.
The injury that has forced Cleveland Guardians outfielder to miss the most amount of time throughout the year has been a rough case of plantar fasciitis.
Thomas missed time at the beginning of June because of this injury, and after making a return ended back on the injured list on July 6 and hasn’t played since.
The veteran is nearing a return to big-league action and played in the second game of a rehab assignment on Friday night with the Akron RubberDucks (Double-A).
Thomas didn’t play the field in this game, but did get four plate appearances over nine innings. In those at-bats, he went 0-for-3, including two strikeouts, a ground out, and a hit by pitch.
Going hitless with two strikes isn’t an idea box score in a rehab game, but stat lines don’t tell the full story during a rehab outing. Thomas hasn’t faced professional pitching at any level in weeks, so he’s still working on getting his time back, which is typically half the goal of a rehab assignment.
He’s is a proven big-league player, that’ll come the more at-bats Thomas gets.
That said, it'll be interesting to see where the outfielder goes from here.
Jun 20, 2025; West Sacramento, California, USA; Cleveland Guardians center fielder Lane Thomas (8) bats during the game against the Athletics at Sutter Health Park. Mandatory Credit: Sergio Estrada-Imagn ImagesThere's only a couple more weeks left of the minor-league season, and Thomas probably needs at least one more rehab game before returning to the big-league roster.
Given how this injury has lingered, it would be shocking and uncharacteristic of the Guardians as an organization to rush the veteran back from the injury he's dealt with on and off all year.
It’s obviously been a frustrating year for Thomas for a variety of reasons.
Of course, he wants to be on the field helping the team in one more final playoff push after coming up short in the ALCS last year. Plus, Thomas is a free agent this offseason and has just a .518 OPS in 39 games this season, complicating what type of contract he could get on the market.
Thomas admitted to MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins last week, “It sucks. It’s just - what can you do? All you can do is show up and work and see where it takes you, and hopefully get over it at some point and be fully healthy.”
For Thomas’ sake, hopefully he can get back on the field before the season is over, to prove to teams that he’s at the very least healthy heading into the winter.