JUNE 12: Expectations are that Soderstrom will sign for approximately $3.3MM, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. That would indeed check in well above slot, as Glaser reported.
JUNE 10, 10:54pm: There’s no deal yet, according to Soderstrom. However, the A’s are optimistic he will sign, per Slusser.
9:38pm: The Athletics have already reached an agreement with first-round pick Tyler Soderstrom, Kyle Glaser of Baseball America reports. Details aren’t known yet, but it’s worth “considerably above slot,” according to Glaser. Soderstrom’s pick, No. 26, comes with a slot value of $2,653,400. Oakland entered the draft with an overall pool of $5,241,500.
Soderstrom’s a local product out of Turlock High School in California, and he’s also the son of 1993 Giants first-rounder Steve Soderstrom, a former pitcher who had a cup of coffee with San Francisco in 1996. Tyler Soderstrom had been in line to play at UCLA before the draft, but he’ll instead continue his development as part of one of the state’s major league teams.
Oakland’s clearly bullish on the younger Soderstrom, as its scout for Northern California, Kevin Mello, told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle: “He’s the best amateur bat I’ve seen in my 15-year career. He’s got a chance to be very, very good. He’s a really special player.”
Mello’s also of the belief that Soderstrom will stick behind the plate, though that may not be a given. MLB.com, which ranks Soderstrom as the 19th-best player in this year’s class, notes that he’s “raw in terms of blocking and game management.” But Soderstrom’s a good athlete who can play third base and the outfield, so those factors and his considerable offensive upside suggest he may be able to carve out a successful MLB career even if he doesn’t last as a catcher.
Was surprised he lasted as long as he did in the draft. Thought SF was going to take him much earlier.
No they got another catcher instead
What did the A’s get for bet getting to sign Kyler Murray?
I believe kyler had more potential in the mlb
Around 1997 the Orioles drafted an outfielder McDonald who was the #1 prospect for both football and baseball out of high school. Very few will know/remember who he is.
Ben? I have his rookie card. Thought he was early 1990s though.
No it was Darnell McDonald. That’s what I think Murray would of been
Red Sox faithful will never forget Darnell McDonald! although, I had no clue he was a high regarded football prospect!
Darnell McDonald. Never heard of him, and I’d bet very few baseball fans have heard of him. It shows you just how risky and inexact the draft is. I do see why Red Sox fans remember him, though!
Kyler Murray is 100x better at baseball than Darnell McDonald.
Not according to professional scouts
Darnell McDonald. Yeah he was super highly touted too. I caught a ton of Delmarva games back then and I just remember his striking out quite a bit
Kyler murray is going to make more money on his first nfl contract than he would have through his first 6 years on the MLB squad, and possibly first 10 years of his professional baseball career. MLB success is no guarantee and they suppress salaries for younger players. Maybe murray turns out to be an elite baseball player that commands 8 figure salaries by the time he’s in his 30s, he will make that in his mid 20s in the nfl…with the added injury risk of course
How much money did Bryce Harper get again?
Murray saw what Bo Jackson did and decided to repeat it, thinking he won’t get hurt like Jackson did, but he probably will, and Murray’s choice is still to this day the dumbest one he ever made, college football (no one cares outside of america) trophy or not.
Kyler Murray was/is the #1 best talent in that draft by far and Beane did the right thing by drafting him, but Beane failed in not being able to convince him to play a non-contact sport alongside CTE-football.
No, Kyler Murray was absolutely not the #1 best talent in the draft. He might have been the most athletic player, but even that, you could easily argue in favor of someone like Xavier Edwards or Jordyn Adams. Fangraphs had him ranked #20, and mlb had him at 36 for what it’s worth. Not even close to the consensus #1 you’re trying to make him sound like. He isn’t currently better at baseball than everyone else in the draft class, and he never was.
Also, he wasn’t just some “random backup QB that came in and won the Heisman.” He was a superstar QB in high school, and the only reason he was a backup at Oklahoma was because he transferred. If you look at it for what it actually was, watching him win the Heisman wasn’t that surprising. This was an elite talent taking over one of the nations most prolific offenses (in a conference that doesn’t play defense), and he wasn’t just thrown into it without having time to learn it first. He was setup to do exactly what he did.
Final thought – He’s not leaving football anytime soon without a gruesome injury. Adding Hopkins was huge for them.
Who would have thought Kyle would win the Heisman trophy. Nobody
Its still an awful pick that was gambled away. How do you reach a deal with him and somehow he still doesn’t play baseball. Beane totally botched it.
Because he was a backup QB that hadn’t been extremely noteworthy in football. Then he came out and won the Heisman. The risk of that happening was pretty low, but it happened. In hindsight not great, but that’s hindsight.
Its not an awful pick, Kyler Murray is better at baseball than anyone in that draft class and still is, and the A’s still have his rights for 5 more years.
LMAO “they still have his rights for 5 more years”. Those rights are going to become just as useless as Russell Wilsons. Murray was a stud in the NFl and won’t be leaving. You cant say he is better than anyone else in that draft since he hasn’t played in 2 years. There were plenty of good prospects drafred in the teens who they passed on. Thinking Murray was anything but a wasted pick is pure delusion.
Murray was a stud? Did I miss something? In every category he was average or below average. The only thing he did better was running in top 3. Rushing QB never last very long in the NFL.
Just stop. Murray looked good as the season went on, which is all that matters for a #1 pick. He did better than most rookies we have seen ever. The idea he is a runner is comical and shows how little you know about him. He has an excellent arm and his passing was solid (including against your 49ers twice). You’re living on another planet if you think he will just flame out, quit football and join the A’s. When you get back to earth call us.
@Afk711, no, YOU “just stop.”
Point to the place in my post where I wrote he would “flame out, quit football and join the A’s”. I’ll wait until the end of time, because you are literally telling absolute lies and creating a fake narrative. Stop talking and start listening for once in your miserable life.
There are 100 different ways Kyler Murray could join the A’s in the next 5 years — imagine thinking that CTE stuff is just going to go away. Dude, the NFL might not exist in 5 years, but you have proven over and over you are too smooth-brained to understand that potential outcome.
“Just stop.” dude log off, where TF you get off telling people what to think? Your mind is evil and corrupted, take a look in the mirror, dude.
That reply wasn’t even for you but if you want to prove yourself to be even more deranged that’s fine by me. How else is he going to join the A’s???? He would have to quit football and thats not happening. You’re seriously trying to argue the NFL, the most profitable sports industry is going to dissolve or Kyler will get CTE and quit. Your stick is to call everyone evil, sorry no one is evil here, you are just insane. You’re willing to die on any hill no matter how ridiculous it is, to defend your precious A’s. Whats even funnier is you think Murray is better than any one Grayson Rodiguez, Jordan Groshans, Matthew Liberatore, Brady Singer, Nolan Gorman or Trevor Larnach some of the solid picks drafted in the teens that year. Beane would trade Murrays rights for any one of them straight up in a heartbeat. They dropped the ball in a rather loaded portion of that draft, to pick a FOOTBALL player.
His passing got worse toward the end of the season. He pretty much is a average QB. Since you are a cards fan of course you want him to be a all star but his arm will never be a all star QB. The cards built a system around him. Next year will be his do or die year since now teams will focus solely on him. He will need to adjust to all the attention he will get.
I’ll at least give you, your arguing for the only plausible outcome where Murray plays baseball unlike Strike Four who said the NFL could dissolve or he gets CTE. But still its a poor argument. Im a Rams fan, not a Cardinals fan. Murray looked very solid for a rookie on a bad team and so many people in the league are high on him. Stats are a poor indicator for a rookie on a bad team, look at Jared Goff’s rookie numbers and his contract now. You also said he is an average QB, well average QB’s still get paid big time. Their coach is a failed college coach, there is no proven system around him yet. Murray is not going to flame out and even if he does its a very bad pick. Its not hindsight, on draft night everyone was saying don’t look for him to be picked and when he was it was shocking. The A’s passed on a very solid group of prospects available to take a football player. Once again, bad wasted pick.
Strike, nice verbal beat down of a ‘smooth’ brained idiot. Enjoyed it.
@clepto The only brain dead people are the ones who think Kyler Murray was a good pick for the A’s. How about you tell me why im wrong? Oh you can’t since you are on the clear wrong side of this situation. iD RaThER HaVe MuRrAy tHan BrAdy SiNgER oR GrAySoN RoDriGueZ
Afk, how about a dose of STFU. I dont care who you would rather have. Your opinion really isnt that valuable.
Imagine getting mad at a sports opinion on a sports website. Your in the wrong place.
You’re*
You are at least consistent at being wrong. Nice work, spanky.
it was still a bad pick. even if Kyler was a backend 1st round type it would still have been a better bet for him to go to the NFL.
How is it a bad pick to pick the most talented player available? You can’t explain this away, just stop.
talented players fall all the time for signability reasons. this case wouldnt have been any different.
Kyler signed with the A’s so they don’t get anything. He never suited up but he signed with the provision that he got to play fb in college. Well, he was a stud and essentially retired from MLB. Point being, he signed so A’s get nothing.
Bryce Harper started out as a catcher too, that write-up made me think about him as a comp.
Not a good comp!
Explain how!
not every player who caught at some point is exactly or even remotely the same player.
Kyler Murray plays the most protected position in football. Got a guarantee 5x larger than his baseball deal and has the potential to make gobs more.
Or kyler could’ve played for the broke Athletics for 6-7 years + minor league time. Keep in mind these are the same Athletics who have never given out a 100 MM contract. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why Murray made a great decision.
Also didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Kyler Murray loved football from the get go. Billy Beane was a buffoon for that selection.
When he was drafted he was a back up QB. If the A’s knew he would win the Heisman they would never have drafted him. So you are saying The A’s should have known a backup QB was going to win the Heisman.
they should have figured it was a possibility at the least that he’d opt for the NFL. many scouts thought he would be a high 1st round baseball talent, but few suggested he be selected there given the potential for him to opt for football.
You keep pushing your false narrative. Kyler Murray was going to be the starting QB at a top 5–national championship contending program when Billy Beane drafted him. You trying to frame him as some backup QB is laughable. He was the backup QB to the previous #1 pick in the draft. The guy could’ve been starting at nearly every program in the country the year before.
Beane and everyone else knew he was going to be the starting QB at a national championship contender. No amount of BS framing changes that.
The knock on Kyler was his size to play in the NFL, but at this same time, teams were seeing guys like Russell Wilson succeed, which changed the thinking on a guy like Murray. If it were 5-10 years earlier it’s unlikely an NFL team would have gambled on him and the A’s would have a good athlete that they would hope could learn to play baseball at the highest level
Thank you, JohnnyBets67. This narrative that he was “just a backup” that nobody expected anything out of is absolutely ridiculous.
Murray was a raw baseball talent as well. The idea that he was a can’t miss baseball prospect with a football issue is crap as well. There’s a decent chance Murray could’ve been on the board for the A’s second pick in the draft.
He wanted to play football badly. You don’t put a MLB deal on pause to play if that wasn’t the case. Beane underestimated or frankly just wanted to gamble on it not happening. The warning signs were there and he deserves to eat all the crow for the pick
I don’t want to come across as a know it
All, but my dad is a retired A’s scout so I picked up a lot of this over the years…
Teams often draft “athletes” with the hopes they can be taught how to play baseball, rather than just draft good players. For example Kyler Murray or any pitcher who throws 95+ and can’t throw a strike to save their life. The hope is over time they will learn. However a college dominant pitchers who throws 88-89 mph, will be drafted in the later (after round 10) rounds. This is not always the case, but if you saw the A’s sign the kid who threw 96 at a Rockies game last year on a pitching radar that isn’t exactly kept up in terms of accuracy, you’ll understand what I’m saying.
This young kid the A’s drafted barring that Billy can sign him, which he should be able to, will never play catcher. He’s an athlete who they feel can pick up another position. He wasn’t even the starting catcher on his HS team! The problem is he may not be able to play another position well in which case he becomes a DH or a bad outfielder. Since the A’s have Murphy at catcher, say Soderstrom makes the majors in 4 years, Murphy is still young and under team control, thus as usual the A’s are drafting an athlete who can hit and hope they can teach the rest of the game (3B, 1b, OF etc.) to him.
You just described Bryce Harper, too 🙂
Suddenly we are back to Kyler Murray. Why?
Going out on a limb here; I bet Oakland wouldn’t have bothered if they were not convinced Murray wanted to play baseball. The A’s and Murray along with his representations probably had numerous conversations, and Murray was prepared to play baseball. They signed, that should have been the end of it.
Murray then has a slight change of heart, shows he is not leadership material or has the strength to stick with commitments and obligations, and he’s now playing Football. Beane, who might still be holding out hope Murray comes back to baseball, should have stood up and destroyed Murray and his people in the press for deceiving the A’s. He hasn’t, probably because he thinks Murray will eventually play baseball and doesn’t want to muddy the waters too much
We don’t know what was said. Can’t blame Oakland if they were dealing with people who weren’t being honest.
Because A’s haters have like 2 things they can trash Beane on and they absolutely LOVE to always talk about them.
Meanwhile Laureano might be a regular 5+ WAR guy and Beane got him for absolutely nothing.
A’s haven’t gone to an ALCS under Beane. They haven’t won anything except always getting knocked out in the first round or wild card. Division are usually meaningless if you don’t win the WS.
They went to the 2006 ALCS and got swept by Detroit.
My mistake. Even then, it’s been almost two decades of failures. It’s crazy how you would think they would at least luck into one WS with all the opportunities they’ve had and always get eliminated. Beane can build a great regular season team but not a postseason roster.
Are you saying zero wins beyond the ALDS since 1990 isn’t good?
Put Beane in a big market and he’d be exposed. He’s proven he can’t spend. He’s right in his wheelhouse of a no-pressure, can’t lose situation.
Lol if you’re a fan of a team and all they got is ALDS wins since 1990, that’s sad. Nobody remembers DS wins, you have to win championships. Winning those games are perfectly fine and the A’s are successful but WS Championships define franchises.
Boras was his agent and was very disappointed Murray changed his mind and turned his back on the contract he signed. Murray is no leader if you watch him last year its all about him. that is why the A’s went back to signing ex-mlb kids. those who want to play a team sport. not a self glory guy.
Lmao Salty A’s fan are gonna be mad they drafted a football player 8th overall until the end of time. Keep slandering the 30 million dollar man!
An argument can be made that the low spending A’s need to gamble on guys like Murray, but a larger argument can be made that because of their low spending they can’t gamble and lose like they did on him.
Bigz not here as an A’s fan. I’m pointing out that I’m sure the signing does not happen if Murray indicated he was ever leaning toward playing football at any point during negotiations.
Murrays dad screwed the brewers back in the day when he got drafted, breached his contract and went on to play college football. Same thing he did with his son
Asfano I did not know that. Good to know.
Correct me if im wrong but werent there last minute discussion of A’s paying murray up to 25 million and put him immediately on 40 man roster to try to convince him away from football, obviouslu his heart was set on the other sport. But i bet if he could do both sports, hed want to
@Asfan yep that’s about right I was reading some articles and that’s what they were saying.