2020 MLB Draft: UCLA OF Garrett Mitchell Picked 20th Overall by Milwaukee
2020 MLB Draft: UCLA OF Garrett Mitchell Picked 20th Overall by Milwaukee
Meanwhile, Bruin commit Tyler Soderstrom was chosen 26th overall by Oakland.
(Photo Credit: Scott Chandler/uclabruins.com)
The 2020 MLB Draft may have been scaled back from the usual 40 rounds to just five, but that didn’t stop two UCLA Bruins from being selected on the first day of this year’s draft.
The first Bruin selected, and the highest Bruin chosen since Chase Utley in 2000, was junior outfielders Garrett Mitchell. Mitchell was selected 20th overall by the Milwaukee Brewers.
Mitchell was batting .355 with a .424 on-base percentage and a .484 slugging percentage when UCLA’s season was ended due to the COVID-19 pandemic after just 15 games.
By being selected 20th overall, Mitchell is looking at an approximate pay day of $3.24M, which gives Mitchell an interesting dilemma. With the NCAA giving spring sport student-athletes an extra year of eligibility, Mitchell could, theoretically, return to UCLA for as many as two more seasons in an attempt to raise his draft stock even further to earn a bigger payday. After all, Arizona State’s Spencer Torlakson, who was drafted first yesterday is looking at an $8.4M payday.
But that’s not without risk.
If Mitchell returned and either got hurt or had a bad season, it could cost him money. Personally, I would expect to see Mitchell sign with the Brewers.
The other Bruin who was selected yesterday was UCLA commit Tyler Soderstrom, a catcher from Turlock HS in Turlock, California. Soderstrom was chosen 26th which slots him for a $2.65M payday. It’s slightly less likely that Soderstrom will sign if only because some players have been opting to go to college to get their education, or at least most of it, while building their draft stock even higher. MLB teams have countered this by including the cost a player would incur to go to college at some point in the future.
Rounds 2-5 of the 2020 MLB Draft will begin this afternoon at 2 pm PT and it can be watched on MLB Network, ESPN2 and MLB.com.
Congratulations, Garrett!
Go Bruins!!!
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Soderstrom is almost guaranteed to sign, as most first round picks in baseball are, but he did get taken by the team that I think is the least likely to get a deal done.
There have already been rumors he's going to be overslot, and the A's are definitely going to go a bit more conservative today to save up the money for him, but if for whatever reason he ups his demands, or if the other picks suddenly up theirs, the A's are probably the most conservative spending team in the league. They've been on the forefront of *not* paying their minor leaguers so they are clearly trying to save a few bucks, which may also give any draftee pause about playing for them.
Those who follow the MLB draft know that the "players opting to go to college to get their education" thing really only holds for guys taken outside of the first 10 rounds with a few exceptions here and there (notably for UCLA, Matt McClain), so again Soderstrom is probably going to sign. But for those who wanted a glimmer of hope he gets to UCLA that was probably the best case scenario, outside of him falling out of the first round entirely.
You meant Garrett is the highest Bruin position player selected since Chase Utley, right?