MLB home run leader Tyler Soderstrom presents rare bright spot for Athletics — and a bit of a problem

The first year in West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park is not off to the greatest start for the Athletics. The A’s are 2-7 at home and have been outscored 62-33 in those nine games. Those home losses, combined with sluggish starts by JJ Bleday and Brent Rooker, have the A’s in the AL West cellar early in the season.

It is not all bad for the Athletics though. First baseman Tyler Soderstrom, the No. 26 overall pick in the 2020 draft, is putting together a breakout season, one that really dates back to last season. Tuesday’s two-homer game against the Chicago White Sox (ATH 12, CWS 3) put Soderstrom in the MLB lead with eight home runs, two more than any other player. He added a single later in Tuesday’s game and is hitting .328/.403/.734 on the season overall. 

Now 23, Soderstrom made his MLB debut in 2023 and, like so many young players, it was tough sledding initially. He hit .160/.232/.240 and struck out 43 times in 45 games in 2023, and had to start 2024 back in Triple-A. The A’s recalled Soderstrom last May and the results came immediately. He homered in his first game back in the big leagues, had three extra-base hits in his first four games, and became a lineup mainstay.

Entering Tuesday’s game, Soderstrom had 15 home runs in 280 plate appearances since being recalled last season, a pretty good pace for a young player who played most of his home games in the home run-suppressing Oakland Coliseum during that time. Look at the pitches Soderstrom turned into those 15 home runs. He’s shown he can cover and do damage against everything:

Soderstrom, a left-handed hitter, has turned on fastballs in and yanked them to right field. He’s taken breaking balls and changeups on the outer half and driven them to center and left fields. He’s hit pitches up, at the belt, in, out, velocity, spin, whatever. A lot of players need a pitch in their nitro zone to hit a home run. The game’s best power hitters can hit all types of pitches out to any part of the park, and Soderstrom is showing the ability to do that now.

The under-the-hood numbers check out. Soderstrom ranks among the league leaders in exit velocity, hard-hit rate, optimal launch angle, etc. He’s also whittled his strikeout rate down to 18.1%, below the 22.6% league average. Soderstrom is making an above-average amount of contact and it is hard contact. It is, well, the kind of contact conducive to a .328/.403/.734 slash line. He’s crushing the ball and being rewarded appropriately.

As a former first-round pick and multiple time top-100 prospect, Soderstrom is not an out-of-nowhere success story. And it’s not like he is a late-bloomer either as a high school player drafted in 2020. There were some concerns about his approach, specifically his aggressiveness against breaking balls, as he was coming up through the minors, though Soderstrom has largely put those to bed. Simply put, he’s a good young player who is figuring things out at the usual pace.

Formerly a catcher, Soderstrom is now locked in at first base, which present the A’s with a bit of a logjam. Nick Kurtz, last year’s No. 4 overall pick and their top prospect, is also a first baseman, and he’s currently demolishing Triple-A. At some soon the Athletics will have to figure out how to squeeze Kurtz, Soderstrom, and Rooker into one lineup. It is no coincidence Rooker played a game in right field recently after spending most of the last two years as a DH.

How the A’s squeeze two first basemen and a DH into the same lineup remains to seen. For now, the A’s are starting to put together a nice position player core with Rooker and Lawrence Butler signed long-term, shortstop Jacob Wilson showing promise, and now Soderstrom putting on a power display. He’s translating his bat speed and brute strength into home runs and an awful lot of production in the early days of the season.