First-Round Pick Soderstrom Signs With Athletics, Will Be in 60-Man Player Pool

Tyler Soderstrom, the 26th overall pick in the June draft, signed with the Oakland Athletics Monday, as did fifth-round choice Stevie Emanuels, a right-handed pitcher out of Washington. Soderstrom, just 18, will be part of the A's roster and will be one of the youngers players on any MLB pool this season.

As expected, the A’s wrapped up their draft signings Monday, striking deals with first-round draft pick Tyler Soderstrom, a prep catcher from Turlock High and fifth-round pick Stevie Emanuels, a right-handed pitcher out of the University of Washington.

Soderstorm’s signing came after he’d committed to UCLA, and it came with a bonus. He will join the A’s 60-man player pool, wherever that winds up being located. At 18, he will be one of the youngest players on any team’s 60-man roster for the shortened 2020 baseball season.

In addition, the A’s added outfielder D.J. Lee from the University of Richmond to its list of undrafted amateur free agents. Lee, who had a .275/.398/.449 last year at Richmond, becomes the sixth undrafted free agent signed.

There was some talk going into the draft that if a big-league club was sure they could lure Soderstrom away from UCLA, he might have been picked somewhere in the top 10. As it was, he was ranked the No. 19 draft prospect by Baseball America and No. 19 by mlb.com before the A’s used the 26 pick in the draft to take him.

Another player who will be part of the A’s player pool, former University of California pitcher Daulton Jefferies, has known Soderstrom for years, and he says the A’s have landed a good one.

“I’ve been throwing to him since he was a freshman in high school,” Jefferies said. Jefferies’ Atwater home is about a 20-minute drive from where Soderstrom’s father, former big-league pitcher Steve Soderstrom, have a baseball field carved out of an almond orchard. “He’s very interactive as a catcher, and he’s very detail oriented. And that’s very hard to find in a high-school player.”

While many players have found it difficult to continue workouts with baseball shut down at the pro, collegiate and high school levels, Soderstrom and Jefferies were among those who have access to facilities, thanks to the almond orchard.

“I’ve thrown to him a bunch during this downtime,” Jefferies said. “It’s easy to tell that he has great upside as a catcher.”

Soderstrom, the Gatorade California Baseball Player of the Year for 2019-20 despite being limited to just five games, hit 450 with four homers as a junior and for a three-plus year career with Turlock High had a .373 batting average.

Emanuels, a Collegiate Baseball Third Team All-American in 2020 after going 3-1 with a 0.79 ERA in four starts for the Huskies, was mostly a reliever his first two years in college, but made the switch to starting last year and the A’s see him as a starter.

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

Click the "follow" button in the top right corner to join the conversation on Inside the Athletics on SI. Access and comment on featured stories and start your own conversations and post external links on our community page.