Athletics and Tyler Soderstrom they agreed to an extension, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. It’s a seven-year contract worth $86MM, the largest guaranteed deal in franchise history. There is an eight-year club option and the deal could reach $131MM including that option and other escalators.
Soderstrom becomes the latest core piece the A’s lock up to a long-term deal. They expand Brent Rooker again Lawrence Butler at $60MM and guarantees of $65.5MM last winter. Soderstrom topped those by a respectable margin, becoming the largest contract in organization history in the process. Their three-year, $67MM free agent deal Luis Severino before it was that flood sign.
The left-handed hitting Soderstrom was a first-round pick in 2020. He has been a standout offensive lineman since high school. The big question is where he will fit on the other side of the ball. When Soderstrom was drafted as a catcher, most scouts felt he would need to move from the position. That’s already happening, as only 15 of his MLB starts behind the plate came in his 2023 rookie season. Backing up poor defensive catchers is often first base, and that’s where Soderstrom spent the first half of his major league career.
Soderstrom struggled in a 45 game sample as a rookie. His .233/.315/.429 hitting in 213 plate appearances in 2024 was a significant step forward but he still didn’t rank with Rooker, Butler and Shea Langeliers as distinct members of A’s long-term totality. Soderstrom entered this year with little pressure in the form of the 2024 fourth overall pick Nick Kurtza college first baseman who was expected to reach the majors very quickly.
While Kurtz was about to do that, Soderstrom’s breakout ’25 campaign ensured the A’s couldn’t move him off the roster. The 24-year-old has been one of the league’s best hitters in the first few weeks of the season. He connected on nine home runs with a .284/.349/.560 slash before the end of April. Soderstrom was tied for fourth in MLB (only behind Aaron is the judge, Raleigh again Eugenio Suárez) in homers in the first month of the season. When Kurtz forced his way to the finals on April 21, Soderstrom was locked in the middle of Mark Kotsay’s hitting streak.
That presented the A’s with a status problem. Rooker is an everyday designated hitter. The 6’5″, 240-pound Kurtz couldn’t play anywhere other than first base. Despite his early catcher/starter background, Soderstrom is a solid player and regular runner. OA threw him in left field on the fly even though he didn’t have much experience there. They probably expected to live with growing pains on defense to keep his bat in shape.
Soderstrom has surprisingly exceeded expectations. He scored 10 runs better than the left fielder in Defensive Runs Saved average. Statcast graded him five games above average. Soderstrom finished the season a Gold Glove finalist in a position he hadn’t played in five months earlier. He joins Butler as an outfield piece, a tandem corner flanking defensive specialist. Denzel Clarke in the middle of nowhere.
The increase in defensive responsibility didn’t affect Soderstrom’s rhythm at the plate. He struggled between May and June after his hot start but rebounded to a .305/.359/.530 showing over the final four months of the season. Soderstrom finished with a .276/.346/.474 batting line while ranking fourth on the team with 25 homers. He improved his contact rate by six percentage points compared to 2024 and held his own against one-handed pitching (.270/.315/.423) while striking out righties (.278/.356/.491). The breakout was also not a product of the A’s playing half of their games at the much-loved Sutter Heath Park. Soderstrom had an OPS north of .800 both at home and on the road.
As recently as this past summer, there was speculation about the A’s potentially trading Soderstrom for a controllable first baseman. The extension takes you firmly off the table and ensures you’ll sit alongside Kurtz, Rooker, Butler and more Jacob Wilson in a very good attacking team. The first three are signed by at least 2029. Kurtz and Wilson have been under team control for five seasons. Langeliers has two more seasons of arbitration eligibility.
More to come.
