Tyler Soderstrom

Tyler Christian Soderstrom

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 200 lb.
• High School Turlock High School
• Debut July 14, 2023

• Born November 24, 2001 in Turlock, CA USA

BR page

Biographical Information

Catcher Tyler Soderstrom is the son of Steve Soderstrom. Both were drafted in the first round, his father 6th overall in the 1993 amateur draft by the San Francisco Giants, and Tyler 26th overall in the 2020 draft, by the Oakland Athletics. They were the 10th such duo in draft history. He was the second catcher taken in the draft, after Patrick Bailey, and while high school catchers are usually a risky demographic for teams to go after in the draft, the A's were convinced that the younger Soderstrom had a high ceiling. For example, he had been selected to play for the USA in the 2019 U-18 Baseball World Cup in South Korea where the US won Silver, being named the DH on the tournament All-Star team after hitting .364. He had a commitment to attend UCLA, but dropped it in order to sign with Oakland. A brother, Tate Soderstrom, played baseball at the University of Arizona in 2018-2020 and University of California, San Diego in 2021 as an outfielder before becoming a scout for the Kansas City Royals. Both brothers went to the same high school as their father - and played for the same coach almost a quarter century apart!

He could not begin his pro career immediately as the minor leagues were shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic, but in 2021, he played a full season with the Stockton Ports in the Low-A West, the once-and-future California League. He played 57 games, appearing at first base when not catching, and put up a batting line of .306/.390/.568 with 20 doubles and 12 homers, outstanding numbers for a young backstop. He was selected to represent the American League in the 2021 Futures Game, one of only a handful of first-year players to be given the honor. He returned to the event two years later, in the 2023 Futures Game.

He made his major league debut immediately after appearing in the Futures Game for the second time, doing so for the Athletics on July 14, 2023 as the starting DH against the Minnesota Twins, going 0 for 3 with a walk. He went on to play 45 games for Oakland. hitting .163 with 3 homers and 7 RBIs. His OPS+ was only 34. He split his time almost equally between catcher, first base and DH. In 2024, he started the season in the minors, then was with the A's from early May to mid-July. He returned to the minors at that point, as he was hitting .219, then returned to the majors in mid-September. He hit .275 in 33 games for the Las Vegas Aviators in AAA, with 10 homers and 27 RBIs, and in the majors, he hit .233 in 61 games, with 9 homers and 26 RBIs. His OPS+ 114, a huge improvement over his first season. He was almost exclusively a first baseman that season, with just 1 game at catcher, where Shea Langeliers was the starter, and none at DH, where Brent Rooker had a great season.

The Athletics left Oakland after the 2024 season, settling in to a temporary home in Sacramento, CA starting in 2025. In the team's first game under the identity of being simply "The Athletics", against the Seattle Mariners on March 27th, Tyler hit the first two homers of the season, both solo shots, accounting for all of his team's runs in a 4-2 loss. Another two-homer game, against the San Diego Padres on April 7th, gave him six long balls in his first 11 games, tying him with Aaron Judge for the major league lead at that early point of the season. With a two-homer game on April 15th in a 12-3 win over the Chicago White Sox, he took sole possession of the major league lead with 8, one shy of his total for the entire 2024 season. It was already his third multi-homer game of the year, with the season barely three weeks old.

Further Reading

• David Adler: "A's Soderstrom joins father as first-round pick", mlb.com, June 10, 2020. [1]
• Martín Gallegos: "'He’s Babe Ruth for us': Soderstrom (2 HRs) blasts his way to history: Athletics slugger is 1st player age 23 or younger with 3 multi-HR efforts in team’s 1st 17 games", mlb.com, April 16, 2025. [2]

Related Sites

• Tyler Soderstrom on mlb.com
• BR Minors page