# List of Athletics first-round draft picks

The Athletics (the A's) are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in West Sacramento, California. They play in the American League West division. The Athletics had previously played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, Kansas City from 1955 to 1967, and Oakland, California from 1968 to 2024. Since the establishment of the Rule 4 Draft the Athletics have selected 82 players in the first round. Officially known as the "First-Year Player Draft", the Rule 4 Draft is MLB's primary mechanism for assigning players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur clubs to its franchises. The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings, with the team possessing the worst record receiving the first pick. In addition, teams which lost free agents in the previous off-season may be awarded compensatory or supplementary picks.
Of these 82 players, 36 have been pitchers, the most of any position; 27 of these were right-handed, while 9 were left-handed. Fifteen outfielders, including one center fielder, and 14 shortstops were selected. The A's have also drafted seven catchers, five third basemen, four first basemen, and one second baseman in the first round. Additionally, 23 players came from high schools or universities in the A's home state of California, followed by 10 from Texas and Florida. They also drafted Ariel Prieto in 1995, who had defected from Cuba the year before. Prieto made his major league debut in 1995, one of 20 players in draft history to go directly to the majors without playing in the minor leagues.
Three Athletics' first-round picks have won championships with the franchise. Reggie Jackson (1966) won World Series titles with the team in 1972, 1973, and 1974. Mark McGwire (1984) and Walt Weiss (1985) won with the 1989 championship team. Four A's first-round picks have gone on to win the Rookie of the Year Award: McGwire in 1987, Weiss in 1988, Ben Grieve (1994) in 1998, and Huston Street (2004) in 2005. Jackson also won a Most Valuable Player award in 1973, and Barry Zito (1999) won a Cy Young Award in 2002, making them the A's only picks to win these awards. Reggie Jackson, elected in 1993, is their only pick in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Although eligible McGwire has not been elected despite over 500 career home runs and briefly holding the single-season home run record (70). Some see McGwire's exclusion as a sign that the Hall is hesitant to elect players suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs as McGwire was suspected of steroid use (he later admitted his use in 2010). The Athletics have made nineteen selections in the supplemental round of the draft and have made the first overall selection once: in the first draft in 1965.
The Athletics have failed to sign three first-round draft picks, although they did not receive a compensation pick for any of them. The first such player not signed was Pete Broberg in 1968. The A's also failed to sign both of their draft picks in 1979, Juan Bustabad and Mike Stenhouse. The Athletics have had ten compensatory picks overall since the first draft in 1965. These additional picks are provided when a team loses a particularly valuable free agent in the previous off-season, or, more recently, if a team fails to sign a draft pick from the previous year.

## Key

| Year | Each year links to an article about that year's Major League Baseball Draft. |
| Position | Indicates the secondary/collegiate position at which the player was drafted, rather than the professional position the player may have gone on to play |
| Pick | Indicates the number of the pick |
| * | Player did not sign with the Athletics |
| § | Indicates a supplemental pick |
| † | Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum |
| '72, '73, '74 | Player was a member of the Athletics' 1972, 1973, and 1974 championship teams |
| '89 | Player was a member of the Athletics' 1989 championship team |

## Picks

| Year | Name | Position | School (location) | Pick |
| 1965 | Rick Monday | Outfielder | Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona) | 1 |
| 1966 | Reggie Jackson† '72, '73, '74 | Outfielder | Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona) | 2 |
| 1967 | Brian Bickerton | Left-handed pitcher | Santana High School (Santee, California) | 7 |
| 1968 | Pete Broberg* | Right-handed pitcher | Palm Beach High School (Palm Beach, Florida) | 2 |
| 1969 | Don Stanhouse | Right-handed pitcher | DuQuoin High School (DuQuoin, Illinois) | 9 |
| 1970 | Dan Ford | Outfielder | Fremont High School (Los Angeles, California) | 18 |
| 1971 | William Daniels | Right-handed pitcher | Mackenzie High School (Detroit, Michigan) | 17 |
| 1972 | Chet Lemon | Shortstop | Fremont High School (Los Angeles, California) | 22 |
| 1973 | Randy Scarbery | Right-handed pitcher | University of Southern California (Los Angeles, California) | 23 |
| 1974 | Jerry Johnson | Catcher | McCallum High School (Austin, Texas) | 22 |
| 1975 | Bruce Robinson | Catcher | Stanford University (Stanford, California) | 21 |
| 1976 | Thomas Sullivan | Right-handed pitcher | Garfield High School (Woodbridge, Virginia) | 24 |
| 1977 | Craig Harris | Right-handed pitcher | Buena High School (Sierra Vista, Arizona) | 18 |
| 1978 | Mike Morgan | Right-handed pitcher | Valley High School (Las Vegas, Nevada) | 4 |
| 1978 | Tim Conroy | Left-handed pitcher | Gateway Senior High School (Monroeville, Pennsylvania) | 20 |
| 1979 | Juan Bustabad* | Shortstop | Miami Lakes High School (Hialeah, Florida) | 5 |
| 1979 | Mike Stenhouse* | Outfielder | Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts) | 26 |
| 1980 | Mike King | Left-handed pitcher | Morningside College (Sioux City, Iowa) | 4 |
| 1981 | Tim Pyznarski | Third baseman | Eastern Illinois University (Charleston, Illinois) | 15 |
| 1982 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 1983 | Stan Hilton | Right-handed pitcher | Baylor University (Waco, Texas) | 5 |
| 1984 | Mark McGwire '89 | First baseman | University of Southern California (Los Angeles, California) | 10 |
| 1985 | Walt Weiss '89 | Shortstop | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) | 11 |
| 1986 | Scott Hemond | Catcher | University of South Florida (Tampa, Florida) | 12 |
| 1987 | Lee Tinsley | Outfielder | Shelby County High School (Shelbyville, Kentucky) | 11 |
| 1988 | Stan Royer | Catcher | Eastern Illinois University (Charleston, Illinois) | 16 |
| 1989 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 1990 | Todd Van Poppel | Right-handed pitcher | Martin High School (Arlington, Texas) | 14 |
| 1990 | Don Peters | Right-handed pitcher | St. Francis College (Joliet, Illinois) | 26 |
| 1990 | David Zancanaro | Left-handed pitcher | University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California) | 34$^§$ |
| 1990 | Kirk Dressendorfer | Right-handed pitcher | University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas) | 36$^§$ |
| 1991 | Brent Gates | Shortstop | University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minnesota) | 26 |
| 1991 | Mike Rossiter | Right-handed pitcher | Burrough High School (Burbank, California) | 38$^§$ |
| 1992 | Benji Grigsby | Right-handed pitcher | San Diego State University (San Diego, California) | 20 |
| 1993 | John Wasdin | Right-handed pitcher | Florida State University (Tallahassee, Florida) | 25 |
| 1993 | Willie Adams | Right-handed pitcher | Stanford University (Stanford, California) | 36$^§$ |
| 1994 | Ben Grieve | Outfielder | Martin High School (Arlington, Texas) | 2 |
| 1995 | Ariel Prieto | Right-handed pitcher | Fajardo University (Santiago de Cuba, Cuba) | 5 |
| 1996 | Eric Chavez | Third baseman | Mount Carmel High School (San Diego, California) | 10 |
| 1997 | Chris Enochs | Right-handed pitcher | West Virginia University (Morgantown, West Virginia) | 11 |
| 1997 | Eric DuBose | Left-handed pitcher | Mississippi State University (Mississippi State, Mississippi) | 21 |
| 1997 | Nathan Haynes | Outfielder | Pinole Valley High School (Pinole, California) | 32$^§$ |
| 1997 | Denny Wagner | Right-handed pitcher | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Blacksburg, Virginia) | 42$^§$ |
| 1998 | Mark Mulder | Left-handed pitcher | Michigan State University (East Lansing, Michigan) | 2 |
| 1999 | Barry Zito | Left-handed pitcher | University of Southern California (Los Angeles, California) | 9 |
| 2000 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 2001 | Bobby Crosby | Shortstop | California State University, Long Beach (Long Beach, California) | 25 |
| 2001 | Jeremy Bonderman | Right-handed pitcher | Pasco High School (Pasco, Washington) | 26 |
| 2001 | John Rheinecker | Left-handed pitcher | Southwest Missouri State University (Springfield, Missouri) | 37$^§$ |
| 2002 | Nick Swisher | First baseman | Ohio State University (Columbus, Ohio) | 16 |
| 2002 | Joe Blanton | Right-handed pitcher | University of Kentucky (Lexington, Kentucky) | 24 |
| 2002 | John McCurdy | Shortstop | University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, Maryland) | 26 |
| 2002 | Ben Fritz | Right-handed pitcher | California State University, Fresno (Fresno, California) | 30 |
| 2002 | Jeremy Brown | Catcher | University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa, Alabama) | 35$^§$ |
| 2002 | Stephen Obenchain | Right-handed pitcher | University of Evansville (Evansville, Indiana) | 37$^§$ |
| 2002 | Mark Teahen | Third baseman | Saint Mary's College of California (Moraga, California) | 39$^§$ |
| 2003 | Bradley Sullivan | Right-handed pitcher | University of Houston (Houston, Texas) | 25 |
| 2003 | Brian Snyder | Third baseman | Stetson University (DeLand, Florida) | 26 |
| 2003 | Omar Quintanilla | Shortstop | University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas) | 33$^§$ |
| 2004 | Landon Powell | Catcher | University of South Carolina (Columbia, South Carolina) | 24 |
| 2004 | Richard Robnett | Outfielder | California State University, Fresno (Fresno, California) | 26 |
| 2004 | Danny Putnam | Outfielder | Stanford University (Stanford, California) | 36$^§$ |
| 2004 | Huston Street | Right-handed pitcher | University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas) | 40$^§$ |
| 2005 | Cliff Pennington | Shortstop | Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas) | 21 |
| 2005 | Travis Buck | Outfielder | Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona) | 36$^§$ |
| 2006 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 2007 | James Simmons | Right-handed pitcher | University of California, Riverside (Riverside, California) | 26 |
| 2007 | Sean Doolittle | First baseman | University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Virginia) | 41$^§$ |
| 2007 | Corey Brown | Outfielder | Oklahoma State University–Stillwater (Stillwater, Oklahoma) | 59$^§$ |
| 2008 | Jemile Weeks | Second baseman | University of Miami (Coral Gables, Florida) | 12 |
| 2009 | Grant Green | Shortstop | University of Southern California (Los Angeles, California) | 13 |
| 2010 | Michael Choice | Center fielder | University of Texas at Arlington (Arlington, Texas) | 10 |
| 2011 | Sonny Gray | Right-handed pitcher | Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee) | 18 |
| 2012 | Addison Russell | Shortstop | Pace High School (Pace, Florida) | 11 |
| 2012 | Daniel Robertson | Shortstop | Upland High School (Upland, California) | 34$^§$ |
| 2012 | Matt Olson | First baseman | Parkview High School (Lilburn, Georgia) | 47$^§$ |
| 2013 | Billy McKinney | Outfielder | Plano West Senior High School (Plano, Texas) | 24 |
| 2014 | Matt Chapman | Third baseman | California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, California) | 25 |
| 2015 | Richie Martin | Shortstop | University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida) | 20 |
| 2016 | A. J. Puk | Left-handed pitcher | University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida) | 6 |
| 2016 | Daulton Jefferies | Right-handed pitcher | University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, California) | 37$^§$ |
| 2017 | Austin Beck | Outfielder | North Davidson High School (Lexington, North Carolina) | 6 |
| 2017 | Kevin Merrell | Shortstop | University of South Florida (Tampa, Florida) | 33$^§$ |
| 2018 | Kyler Murray | Outfielder | University of Oklahoma (Norman, Oklahoma) | 9 |
| 2019 | Logan Davidson | Shortstop | Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina) | 29 |
| 2020 | Tyler Soderstrom | Catcher | Turlock High School (Turlock, California) | 26 |
| 2021 | Maxwell Muncy | Shortstop | Thousand Oaks High School (Thousand Oaks, California) | 25 |
| 2022 | Daniel Susac | Catcher | University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona) | 19 |
| 2023 | Jacob Wilson | Shortstop | Grand Canyon University (Phoenix, Arizona) | 6 |
| 2024 | Nick Kurtz | First baseman | Wake Forest Demon Deacons baseball (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) | 4 |