Update: A’s thrilled Turlock’s Soderstrom falls to them in first round of MLB draft
With the sixth pick in the 1993 Major League Baseball Draft, the San Francisco Giants selected Steve Soderstrom.
Twenty-seven years later, the Oakland Athletics drafted Steve’s son, left-handed hitting catcher/infielder Tyler Soderstrom with the 26th pick in the first round of the 2020 MLB Draft on Wednesday.
“He’s the best amateur bat I’ve seen in my 15-year career,” Kevin Mello, Oakland’s Northern California scout, told The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser.
According to media reports, while Soderstrom has verbally committed to UCLA, Oakland expects him to sign a pro contract.
The Soderstroms become the 10th father/son duo to be drafted in the first round.
He told Slusser that while he leaned toward being a San Francisco Giants fan because of his dad, “Now that the A’s have selected me, it made it pretty easy to jump ship.”
Some expected Soderstrom to go higher, and that he fell to 26th was good for the A’s.
“I didn’t see him still being there, honestly,” Mello told the Chronicle. “That’s quite a get at 26.”
Soderstrom, a Turlock High graduate, is the first Stanislaus District player to be drafted in the first round since Turlock High alum and University of the Pacific right-handed pitcher Dan Reichert was drafted by the Kansas City Royals with the seventh pick in 1997.
Reichert spent five years in the majors and was 21-25.
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 7:02 PM.
