Former Rusk High School standout J.D. Thompson was selected in the second round (59th overall) by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft.

Thompson, who just finished his third season at Vanderbilt, has posted a 13-7 record with a 4.28 ERA, 219 strikeouts and 61 walks in 164 innings with the Commodores.

As the ace for Vanderbilt this season, Thompson was 6-5 with a 4.00 ERA, 122 strikeouts and 30 walks in 90 innings and 16 starts. The Commodores were the No.1 seed in the NCAA Baseball Tournament.

MLB.com’s scouting report on Thompson said: “Though he was a lefty with some of the best pitchability in Texas’ 2022 high school class, Thompson lacked the physicality and present stuff to prod teams to try to buy him away from his Vanderbilt commitment. Three years later, he’s still 6 feet tall and still doesn’t light up radar guns, but he’s one of the better southpaws in the college crop. He’s serving as the Commodores’ Friday-night starter in 2025 and could land in the top two or three rounds. Though Thompson’s fastball camps at 90-93 mph and tops out at 95, it ranks near the top of college baseball in terms of getting strikes, chases and swings and misses both inside and outside of the strike zone. His heater features significant induced vertical break, and he also can command it to both sides of the plate. His second-best offering is a 77-81 mph sweeping slider that he uses primarily against lefties and can back-foot versus righties. Thompson also can miss bats with his mid-70s curveball and low-80s changeup with mild fade but has more difficulty landing them for strikes. He has little effort in his delivery and repeats it well, so he could develop above-average control. He comes with a high floor as a No. 4 starter and might be better than that if his fastball continues to thrive at the next level.”

MLB had Thompson as the No. 66-ranked draft prospect.

The Athletic’s Keith Law, who had Thompson ranked as the No. 33 draft prospect, said, “Thompson has a low-90s fastball that’s hard to hit when he lets it ride up in the zone, and when he pairs that with a 70 changeup, he’s extremely effective against hitters on both sides of the plate. He’s also got an above-average curveball and average slider, and throws strikes, with a 7.9 percent walk rate this spring, although it’s control over command. He generated over 30 percent whiff rates on all four pitches this year, but the changeup stands out — hitters fanned on it 52 percent of the time they swung, as it has good late tumble and a little run to it as well. He seems like a definite starter, with no platoon split at all this year, who just needs to tighten up his fastball command to try to reduce the amount of hard contact he allows to become a mid-rotation guy or better.”

On MLB’s draft coverage, Tennessee head baseball coach Tony Vitello, who has coached against Thompson, said Thompson is “undervalued.

It’s the second consecutive year an area pitcher who played in the Southeastern Conference was drafted in the top 60 picks as Bullard’s Hagen Smith was drafted fifth overall out of Arkansas by the Chicago White Sox in 2024.

As a senior at Rusk, Thompson was 6-0 with a 0.27 ERA, 93 strikeouts, 10 walks, 2 earned runs and a 0.53 WHIP in 50.1 innings. Thompson hit .400 with 34 hits, 9 doubles, 1 triple, 14 RBIs and 14 runs. He had a .958 fielding percentage with 60 putouts and eight assists. He was named the All-East Texas Baseball Player of the Year. As a junior, Thompson went 13-1 with one save, a 0.35 ERA and 19 walks. He also struck out a state-high 194 batters in helping the Eagles reach the state baseball tournament for the first time. Thompson was selected as the All-East Texas Baseball Pitcher of the Year and was a MaxPreps All-American. At the plate, Thompson hit .355 with 33 hits, two home runs, 10 doubles, five triples and 24 runs. Thompson was the All-East Texas Newcomer of the Year as a freshman, when he was 8-3 with a 0.53 ERA with 98 strikeouts and just nine walks in 66 innings.

A multi-sport athlete, Thompson competed in baseball, football, basketball, powerlifting, track and field and tennis at Rusk.