Northern California Made Its Mark On The 2020 MLB Draft.
Even though the Major League Baseball Season remains on hold due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, in some respects the show had to go on for America’s pastime. The most notable way that that took place was through the MLB Draft, which was broadcast on MLB Network and ESPN to provide manna in the desert to a sports-starved public. In a rarity for the MLB draft, the biggest name and some of its greatest potential stars of the future hailed from Northern California.
Norcal is often heavily overshadowed as a baseball hotbed by the southern region of the state, which along with Texas and Florida is considered one of the three greatest sources of amateur talent in the country. But the north of the state has produced some of the greatest talents the sport has ever seen- from legendary outfielders like Barry Bonds (San Carlos) and Rickey Henderson (Oakland), to Cy Young Award-winning ace pitcher CC Sabathia (Vallejo). And the 2020 draft could produce a player with the potential to reach heights worthy of those Northern California names that came before him.
That player would be Spencer Torkleson, who was selected first overall by the Detroit Tigers. A native of Petaluma in Sonoma County, Torkleson chose to attend Arizona State University, the alma mater of Barry Bonds himself. Torkleson first caught national attention his freshman year, when he hit 25 home runs in just 55 games. Not only did this break Barry Bonds’ record for most home runs by an Arizona State freshman, he set a record for most home runs by a freshman from any Pac-12 school.
Although in the 2019 draft, one of Torkleson’s teammates and fellow Bay Area natives Hunter Bishop was selected tenth overall by the San Francisco Giants, Torkleson was already considered the presumptive first overall pick for 2020 a year in advance. And as the 2020 college baseball season kicked off, Torkleson started out strong, only for the season to be cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. The shutdown of the season robbed Torkleson of yet another achievement, as he stood just three home runs shy of breaking Bob Horner’s record for most career home runs by an Arizona State player.
In picking Torkleson, the Tigers have cemented one of the cornerstones of a rebuild that has been ongoing for several years. Most of the top prospects in their farm system are pitchers, such as the 2018 first overall pick Casey Mize, a right hander from Auburn University with potential to be an ace starter on the mound. Torkleson provides the impact bat that they desperately need, and the Tigers now have the ingredients to recreate something similar to their last contending team.
That iteration of the Detroit Tigers team was anchored on the mound by multiple ace pitchers, such as Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer, while slugging infielder Miguel Cabrera provided the muscle in the middle of the batting order.
If all goes as planned with Torkleson, he will fill the same role as Cabrera on the Tigers team that won four consecutive division titles between 2011 and 2014, and went to the World Series in 2012, losing to the San Francisco Giants. Detroit fans can only hope that Torkleson can lead them to the promised land where their previous stars could not, delivering the franchise its first World Series title since 1984.
Although Torkleson was easily the biggest name from Northern California to be selected in the 2020 Draft, he was far from the only notable player selected from the region. Last year, the Giants went the hometown route by selectiong Torkleson’s former Arizona State teammate Hunter Bishop, but this time it would be the Oakland A’s who would dip into their backyard for a first round pick. With their pick at 26th overall, they made a pick with a Bay Area sports legacy.
That pick was Tyler Soderstrom, a catcher out of Turlock High School. Soderstrom is committed to play baseball at UCLA, but is expected to sign with Oakland. Soderstrom’s father Steve was picked sixth overall by the San Francisco Giants in 1993, but his professional career never lived up to the high standards expected of a sixth overall pick. After his career ended, he started a sports training facility in the Turlock area, which, in post-draft interviews, Tyler credited as a major factor in his success playing growing up
Although Tyler went twenty spots lower, he has an excellent chance of surpassing his father’s achievements in pro ball. Soderstrom is not likely to remain a catcher in his professional career, but his strength as a prospect lies in his bat, as he hit .373 in his high school career with 69 runs batted in. Speaking to The Athletic, baseball consultant Ryan Ozella called Soderstrom “one of the best left-handed bats in the nation.”
For the 2019–20 high school baseball season, he was named the Gatorade Player Of The Year for California, the honor awarded to the most outstanding high school player in the state. This is an incredibly prestigious achievement, seeing as multiple Gatorade honorees in the past five years alone have been picked first overall in the draft, all from Southern California.
Though not picking a Bay Arean in the first round this year, the Giants, for their part, did not entirely neglect their home region. With the 85th overall pick, they selected Kyle Harrison, a left-handed pitcher from De La Salle High School in the East Bay. Harrison was ranked the sixty-third best prospect in the nation by MLB Pipeline, presenting great potential value for the Giants at 85.
These outstanding young athletes and others will represent Northern California as they sign with their teams and start their careers in pro ball, hopefully sooner rather than later given that so much of the major and minor leagues’ future is up in the air with COVID-19. In the baseball world, Northern California has for so long been given little respect compared to the southern part of the state, despite its own rich history of producing talent. Hopefully this draft is the beginning of that perception starting to change permanently.
