by Bill Moriarity / A’s Farm Editor
June 10, 2020
On Wednesday, the A’s took Turlock High School catcher Tyler Soderstrom with their first pick in 2020’s amateur draft. The team held the 26th pick in the first round and was somewhat surprised to find the local backstop still available when it came time to make its first selection. The last time the A’s took a high school player in the first round was when they made outfielder Austin Beck the team’s top pick in the 2017 draft.
(MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Since Soderstrom has committed to play at UCLA, there had been talk that he wouldn’t be interested in signing a major league deal at this point unless a local team came calling. And there had been speculation that the A’s cross-bay rivals in San Francisco might target the young catcher, whose father Steve Soderstrom was the Giants’ first-round pick back in 1993 out of Fresno State. But when San Francisco passed on Soderstrom with the 13th overall pick in favor of college catcher Patrick Bailey, and 12 other teams then passed on him as well, that left the young receiver, who was the 18th-ranked prospect by Baseball America this year, available to the A’s with the 26th pick.
“If you’d asked me coming into it whether this would happen, I would have been surprised. But things seemed to align for us and we were fortunate,” A’s scouting director Eric Kubota told A’s beat writers on Wednesday night.
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound catcher, who was named the Gatorade California Player of the Year for 2019-20, was only able to play in five games for Turlock High this year before the season ended early, but he batted .450 with four home runs and a 1.340 OPS in 28 games as a junior and had a .373 career average over 82 games in his high school career. The left-handed hitter was considered the top high school catcher in this year’s draft, though he’s widely viewed at as a bat-first catcher.
Soderstrom admitted as much after his selection by the A’s, saying, “I think my bat is my biggest asset. That’s what’s going to carry me far in this game.” He’s mentioned All-Stars Christian Yelich and Cody Bellinger as a couple of his hitting role models, and former Colorado general manager Dan O’Dowd compared him to former Phillies catcher Darren Daulton on MLB Network.
(MLB Photos via Getty Images)
While the 18-year-old is a pretty polished hitter for a high school player and possesses some real power potential, he’s also considered to be fairly athletic and shows decent speed for a catcher. There’s no question that he has a strong throwing arm, but many scouts have expressed doubts about his ability to stick behind the plate. And if he doesn’t, then he could always be a fit at first base or third base or in a corner outfield position.
The A’s seem to be committed to giving Soderstrom every chance to remain behind the plate though. Kubota claimed, “I think every scout for the Oakland A’s sees him as a catcher. First off, he has a strong desire to catch. And that’s more than half the battle when you are talking about developing as a catcher in the minor leagues. He’s got an advanced knowledge about the position for his age. We think all the ingredients are there to be a very good catcher.”
The Turlock native, whose family is known for its almond orchards and turkey farm, is already well acquainted with another A’s prospect from the Central Valley, pitcher Daulton Jefferies, who’s spent plenty of time working out with Soderstrom in the offseason.
The A’s seem to be confident that they’ll be able to bring the UCLA-commit into the fold. On Wednesday, Kubota claimed, “I think we’re comfortable we can make something happen.”
Even if he does quickly sign with the A’s, with no minor league season likely to get underway this year, Soderstrom may not have the opportunity to make his professional debut any time before next spring. But the A’s clearly are hoping that it’ll be more than worth the wait.
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