Top A’s prospect Soderstrom off to Futures Game
Catcher Tyler Soderstrom, the Turlock native and the A’s firstround pick in the 2020 draft, will represent Oakland in the AllStar Futures Game.
Soderstrom, 19, is the secondyoungest player on the American League roster for the Futures Game announced Wednesday by Major League Baseball. He is one of three catchers, joining Baltimore’s Adley Rutschman, the first overall pick in 2019, and Cleveland’s Bo Naylor.
The Futures Game will be played July 11 at Coors Field in Denver.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Here’s a kid we gave some atbats to in spring training and usually at his age it’s just great to be at bigleague camp and catch guys, but he hit in some games and, man, he can really swing the bat. What I understand too is he works on his catching really hard. We feel like he’s going to be a catcher no matter what his bat looks like and he’s off to a great first year.”
Soderstrom, the 26th pick in 2020, is off to a strong start in his first minorleague season at LowA Stockton. Entering Wednesday, he was batting .315 with nine home runs and 40 RBIs in 45 games for the Ports.
“He’s swung the bat well,” said Ed Sprague, A’s director of player development. “I think we’re seeing what we kind of expected. He’s using the whole field, he’s showing a little power. He chases a little bit from time to time but for the most part he’s a natural hitter and he’s proved that.”
Baseball America and MLB.com deem Soderstrom, a lefthanded hitter, as Oakland’s top prospect. He spent last season at the A’s alternate site and appeared in 10 majorleague spring training games this year, going 4for10 with three doubles.
Questions about Soderstrom during the draft mostly involved whether he would stay at catcher. Sprague said Soderstrom’s early defensive play has been encouraging.
“He’s come a long way from when we had him last summer,” Sprague said. “I think Gabe Ortiz, our catching coordinator, has done a fantastic job with him. He’s blocking the ball well, he threw a guy out (Tuesday) night, his footwork is better. All parts of his game behind the plate have improved. Any questions coming out of the draft about whether he can catch or not — I think he can definitely catch. I think his bat’s ahead of his defense right now but it’s just because he’s a great hitter. He’s really polished for his age.”
Sprague indicated the A’s would not hurry to move Soderstrom up if he continues to produce at LowA.
“I’m sure we’ll have some of those discussions at the draft with (GM David Forst) and the front office, but right now we kind of like where he’s at,” Sprague said. “Obviously the HighA is a little bit better but this league still has a good balance of good, solid pitching as well as it’s a little more of a mixed bag in terms of different teams with different ages; every team’s constructed a little bit differently.
“He’s still seeing some really good pitching, some upperlevel type stuff. So I don’t think there’s a huge rush on it. And we still want to make sure that his defense is coming along as well.”