The Oakland Athletics have had the worst record in baseball this season, sitting at the All-Star break with a 25-67 record- or, .272 winning percentage. While the A’s won’t resemble a good baseball team any time soon, they may at least be more watchable in the second half with the addition of multiple promising prospects.
Oakland is calling up prospects Tyler Soderstrom and Zack Gelof to join the big-league club to begin the second half of the season on Friday in a home series vs the Minnesota Twins, as first reported by Martín Gallegos of MLB.com.
According to MLB Pipeline, Soderstrom is Oakland’s No. 1 prospect and Gelof is the organization’s No. 3 prospect.
Big news: A’s are calling up BOTH No. 1 prospect Tyler Soderstrom and No. 3 prospect Zack Gelof, per source.
Both will join the team for Friday night’s series opener against the Twins at the Coliseum.
— Martín Gallegos (@MartinJGallegos) July 13, 2023
FanGraphs ranks Soderstrom the No. 30 prospect in all of baseball, while MLB Pipeline places him 34th overall.
Soderstrom, 21, has hit 20 home runs with a .254/.303/.536 slash line for the Las Vegas Aviators in Triple-A this season. The son of former major-league pitcher Steve Soderstrom was selected in the first round by Oakland with the 26th overall pick of the 2020 MLB Draft. He’s split time between catcher and first base for Las Vegas, and it will be interesting to see where his long-term defensive position is with the A’s.
MLB's top-ranked first base prospect (@Athletics' No. 1) Tyler Soderstrom slugs his 20th dinger of the season for the @AviatorsLV:
103.1 mph | 425 ft. pic.twitter.com/Oo31vS5tOq
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) July 2, 2023
Gelof doesn’t have quite the same prospect reputation, but he’s been an even better player than Soderstrom this season for Las Vegas. The 23-year-old second baseman has put together a .304/.401/.529 slash line with 12 homers, a 13.3 walk percentage, and 20 stolen bases in 25 attempts.
A four-bagger, four nights in a row!
No. 3 @Athletics prospect Zack Gelof extends his home run streak for the @AviatorsLV: pic.twitter.com/0qGU2pIWBb
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) July 4, 2023
In what’s been a very frustrating season both with the results on the field and the drama surrounding the organization’s future location, Soderstrom and Gelof provide A’s fans with some needed excitement in the second half.
