Turlock High grad could make pro debut in Modesto Nuts’ season-opener against Ports
Professional baseball returns to Modesto on Tuesday after a 20-month absence when the Nuts open the 2021 Minor League Baseball season with a six-game series against the Stockton Ports at 7:05 p.m.
In addition to the excitement around the start of the season, the Ports made things interesting on Saturday when they released their roster with a familiar name to Stanislaus County baseball fans.
Tyler Soderstrom, the Oakland Athletics’ 2020 first-round pick and Turlock High graduate, will be in uniform and could make his professional debut.
Soderstrom participated at the A’s alternate site last summer and impressed the organization. He earned an invite to the team’s spring training, where he went 4-for-10.
He is the organization’s No. 1 prospect and the Athletic’s Melissa Lockard had high praise for the former Bulldog.
“He may be the most polished high school hitting prospect the A’s have had since Addison Russell in 2012-14,” Lockard wrote in a recent preview for the MiLB season.
Fans who watch the Nuts and Soderstrom this week will notice a different John Thurman Field with the stadium at 20% capacity (800 fans) and fans seated in “pods” with no more than six seats together (distanced from adjacent pods by six feet) among other health protocols the team announced in late April.
The Modesto Nuts last game was in Sept 2, 2019.
Mustafa Johnson not drafted: Former Modesto Junior College and Turlock High standout Mustafa Johnson was not selected in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Johnson, a defensive lineman from the University of Colorado, had not signed with a team as of Monday afternoon but was scheduled to work out for the New York Jets, according to Ralphie Report reporter Jeff Hauser.
