The A’s are promoting top catching/first base prospect Tyler Soderstrom before Friday’s game against the Twins, MLBTR has confirmed. The call-up was first reported by Christopher Correa of the Turlock Journal.
Oakland selected Soderstrom with the 26th overall pick out of a California high school in 2020. The left-handed hitter was regarded as a bat-first catcher on draft day. He’s lived up to that profile in the minors, hitting .272/.333/.525 in 260 professional games.
Soderstrom has been a top young talent for the past couple seasons. He participated in the Futures Game in 2021 (which he did again last weekend) and ranked among Baseball America’s top 25 prospects the following year. Soderstrom traversed three minor league levels last season, hitting .267/.324/.501 while spending the majority of his time in High-A.
He’s spent the entire 2023 campaign with Triple-A Las Vegas. Soderstrom has popped 20 home runs and slugged .536 in 69 games in that extremely hitter-friendly environment. He’s posted middling strikeout and walk numbers, drawing free passes just 6.6% of the time against an elevated 27.6% strikeout percentage. His .303 on-base percentage is last among the 68 hitters with 200+ plate appearances in the Pacific Coast League.
Of course, the 21-year-old was generally facing pitching much older than him at the top minor league level. Heading into the season, Soderstrom was on the Top 100 lists at all of BA, The Athletic, ESPN and MLB Pipeline. Scouting reports are effusive in their praise for his offensive ability. Soderstrom is credited with one of the best hit/power combinations of any player in the minor leagues.
The biggest question, as has been the case since draft day, is his eventual position. Prospect evaluators suggest he’s a well below-average receiving catcher who’s likely to move off the position. That’s before considering the presence of Shea Langeliers, whom the A’s have used behind the dish as their potential long-term replacement for Sean Murphy.
Soderstrom has split his time between catcher and first base with Las Vegas this season. He’s gotten 35 starts behind the plate, 24 nods at first base and nine outings as a designated hitter. Catcher and first are the only positions he’s played in pro ball, though both Baseball America and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel suggested he could be athletic enough to handle third base or the corner outfield if he doesn’t catch regularly.
A’s skipper Mark Kotsay will presumably find ways to get Soderstrom in the lineup on an everyday basis. He could take some starts from Langeliers while working in at first base or DH. Rule 5 draftee Ryan Noda is having a strong rookie campaign and will presumably play whichever of first base or DH that Soderstrom isn’t manning. Brent Rooker and Seth Brown seem likely to take most of their reps in the corner outfield.
There haven’t been many causes for celebration for A’s fans this season. Friday’s game will offer the fanbase and organization a glimpse of what they hope is a more exciting future. Soderstrom joins 2021 second-round selection Zack Gelof in getting his first MLB nod. Gelof isn’t quite the caliber of prospect Soderstrom is, but they’re both generally regarded among the top handful of young talents in the organizational pipeline.
Because he appeared on the preseason Top 100 lists at Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline, Soderstrom would be eligible for a full year of service time if he can squeeze out a top-two finish in AL Rookie of the Year balloting. That’s a tall task with less than half a season’s worth of playing time, however. It’s likely he’ll end up shy of a full service year; in that case, he wouldn’t be eligible for arbitration until after the 2026 season and is controllable through 2029. Future assignments to the minor leagues could push that back further.
The A’s have one opening on the 40-man roster after waiving right-hander Adam Oller this week. They’ll need to create another vacancy to select the contracts of both Gelof and Soderstrom.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Give LV something to look forward to!
They aint in Vegas yet and Mayor of Oakland making strong pitch to keep them there
I don’t know about “strong”. Seems a day late for that meeting.
Mayor of Oakland is trying to not to be hated in her city. Oakland’s offer wasn’t competitive to stay around. They had no obligation to do so but some other city was always going to offer up substantial public funds.
Actually it was completive but Fisher wanted free tax money which he received from Vegas politicians. Why give him $180 million in tax credits he can sell for cash? watch him sell the team to a Vegas billionaire after keeping the $180 million in txaes.
More regurgitated lies from bigots who want to see Oakland fail. Please learn how to read, write, and think critically. Perhaps a revisit to middle school will help you get things in order.
I don’t think they should’ve done it. But the idea is that some other city was going to do it. Can’t knock him for taking a better offer.
He’s not a catching prospect. He’s a 1B prospect.
For a guy only hitting . 254/.303/.536 in the “hitterest” of hitter parks in AAA this is going to be ugly.
Are the A’s calling up Gelof and Soderstrom to shop them?
There’s more that goes into it than stats.
That being said, there are teams out there that if they had a catcher hit .254 in ANY league, they’d be doing backflips like Ozzie Smith.
dude’s also 21
Excellent move by A’s David Forst (sure Billy Beane is around still providing valuable input).
Bout time, give these guys ample playing time.
Give the dude a look see.
The OBP isn’t very encouraging, but he has legit power. And a pretty cool last name.
He Ks in 30% of his ABs. And he doesn’t walk or even work the count. Ryon Healy without the funny spelled first name.
The strikeout rate worries me but he’s young and the power
is real. Hope he does well.
Good luck Tyler!
His long lost father used to be an umpire, Gary Cederstrom.
So, vision problems have a history of running in the family?
Honestly looking at that roster, nothing should be blocking this kid from being their full time first baseman. Don’t screw with him and put him in the outfield. Not for some Rule V guy.
Better late than never. May win 50 after all. Hope John Fisher doesn’t wake up tomorrow
Look like Oakland is already giving up for the season huh . I would already start packing for Vegas while they at it and play next year and share the minor league field until their stadium is built. If the city of Oakland really cared about the stadium they would gotten a new stadium by now because that current stadium is unhealthy..
It’s ridiculous how many people automatically turn any positive news about the A’s directly to them leaving. This kid is making the majors at 21 years old and all you can talk about is “Oh, the stadium this, Oakland that.” No wonder the team is leaving. The fans can’t enjoy a single positive thing.
Oakland is shooting for a quick turnaround. That was Forst’s plan long before this whole relocation fiasco.
Personally I think this is Oakland’s worst rebuild in over 30 years. It wouldn’t surprise me if the finished product fails to make the playoffs even once. But the pieces are falling into place quickly and 75 wins next year wouldn’t be shocking.
Fisher wants a quick turnaround to dupe fans into forgetting the most recent selloff. It won’t work and now it’s suddenly time to relocate to Vegas. How convenient for the owner so cheap even the others complain about him
The forecasted high in Las Vegas this weekend is 117 F, why would humans gravitate towards that?
Not sure about Oakland but I am 35 miles from there and our forecasted high is 111. Fact is it’s going to be a hot weekend where ever you go out west. Not sure the extra 6 degrees is going to make a difference
Where is that? i am 20 miles away and it might get 95. 111 one day a month is better than 5 months of 111 or above everyday.
Looks like a high of 76 today and 78 tomorrow. (I’m hoping to catch tomorrow’s day game.) The Coliseum is right across Interstate 880 from the Bay and gets those breezes.
Why rush him up? He is a talented hitter with big power but he is only 21 and has a more than 4 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio in AAA.
Mlb pitching is much better and 6% walks and 27% Ks can quickly become 4% and 33% in mlb. Let him work that out in the minors.not everyone has and needs elite plate discipline, there are guys succeeding with a worse than 3 to 1 ratio but I would give him the task to at least improve that to 3 to 1 in AAA (say 24 to 8) before calling him up. Not everyone is elly de la cruz who can just outslug his 30% k rate so far, soderstrom has power but probably not ellys 80 grade power.
I think he’s been called up too early. We have enough people that only hit for power and nothing else. Let him get a full season in AAA before calling him up. He needs to get that K rate down, and as was stated in the article, he was in a hitter friendly environment and came out with terrible numbers. As Ben Davis would say “He has no business being in the majors. He’s not ready.”
How many players on A’s roster can u say that about though ?
Ready or not, now is a good time for a rude awakening. Gives him something to work on over the offseason when a weakness is exposed.
A’s Ownership is the Worst,penny pinching Morons, allowing this once Proud Franchise to become the Laughing Stock of Major League Baseball.I would say they should be ashamed of themselves but there’s obviously No Shame in their Game(Pun intended)
The laughingstock of MLB is the New York Mets, who spent more money in baseball, history, design, Larry, Moe, and Curly. The problems in Oakland are a direct result of bad ownership. What is the Mets excuse?
Soda Pop looks like he’s a good fit at 1B with those minor league numbers. Plenty of abs to go around for he and Langeliers both.
A’s see what the reds are doing and are like “eff it”, let’s do the same
Soderstrom looks promising. Maybe not a sabermetric darling. However, Soderstrom strokes bombs like he’s Bubba Watson off the tee and that will play well in the Oakland Coliseum.
…the Coliseum is a pitcher’s park. Major League pitchers are not AAA pitchers. Power doesn’t play if the bat doesn’t touch the ball.