2022 MLB Draft: Arizona catcher Daniel Susac picked 19th overall by Athletics

Major League Baseball’s Bay Area teams love them some Susac brothers.

Standout Arizona catcher Daniel Susac was taken by the Oakland Athletics in the first round of the MLB Draft on Sunday, going 19^th overall. His selection comes 11 years after older brother Andrew Susac went in the second round to the San Francisco Giants.

Susac, whose hometown of Roseville, Calif. is about 100 miles from Oakland, is the first UA player to be drafted by the A’s since first baseman Alfonso Rivas went to them in the fourth round in 2018.

He is the 12th Wildcat to be drafted in the first round, the first since fellow catcher Austin Wells went 28^th to the New York Yankees in 2020.

Susac’s 2-year UA career was one of the greatest in program history. He was a unanimous All-American both seasons, winning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2021 and landing on the conference’s first team in 2022.

This past spring Susac became the 10^th player in school history with 100 hits in a season, batting .366 with 12 home runs, 61 RBI, 19 doubles and 50 runs scored.

For his career, Susac had 181 hits, the most of any player in their first two seasons at Arizona since at least 1998.

The No. 19 overall pick has a bonus “slot value” of $3,529,400. If Susac signs at full value he would garner the largest signing bonus of any Arizona player in program history, topping Wells’ $2.5 million in 2020.