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. Five 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, Huston Street (2004) in 2005, and Nick Kurtz (2024) in 2025. 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 Ref 1965 Outfielder Arizona State University(Tempe, Arizona) 1966 † '72, '73, '74 Outfielder Arizona State University(Tempe, Arizona) 1967 Left-handed pitcher Santana High School(Santee, California) 1968 * Right-handed pitcher Palm Beach High School(Palm Beach, Florida) 1969 Right-handed pitcher DuQuoin High School(DuQuoin, Illinois) 1970 Outfielder Fremont High School(Los Angeles, California) 18 1971 Right-handed pitcher Mackenzie High School (Detroit, Michigan) 17 1972 Shortstop Fremont High School(Los Angeles, California) 22 1973 Right-handed pitcher University of Southern California(Los Angeles, California) 23 1974 Catcher McCallum High School(Austin, Texas) 22 1975 Catcher Stanford University(Stanford, California) 21 1976 Right-handed pitcher Garfield High School(Woodbridge, Virginia) 24 1977 Right-handed pitcher Buena High School(Sierra Vista, Arizona) 18 1978 Right-handed pitcher Valley High School(Las Vegas, Nevada) Left-handed pitcher Gateway Senior High School(Monroeville, Pennsylvania) 20 1979 * Shortstop Miami Lakes High School(Hialeah, Florida) * Outfielder Harvard University(Cambridge, Massachusetts) 26 1980 Left-handed pitcher Morningside College(Sioux City, Iowa) 1981 Third baseman Eastern Illinois University(Charleston, Illinois) 15 1982 1983 Right-handed pitcher Baylor University(Waco, Texas) 1984 '89 First baseman University of Southern California(Los Angeles, California) 10 1985 '89 Shortstop University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill(Chapel Hill, North Carolina) 11 1986 Catcher University of South Florida(Tampa, Florida) 12 1987 Outfielder Shelby County High School(Shelbyville, Kentucky) 11 1988 Catcher Eastern Illinois University(Charleston, Illinois) 16 1989 1990 Right-handed pitcher Martin High School(Arlington, Texas) 14 Right-handed pitcher St. Francis College(Joliet, Illinois) 26 Left-handed pitcher University of California, Los Angeles(Los Angeles, California) 34§ Right-handed pitcher University of Texas at Austin(Austin, Texas) 36§ 1991 Shortstop University of Minnesota(Minneapolis, Minnesota) 26 Right-handed pitcher Burrough High School(Burbank, California) 38§ 1992 Right-handed pitcher San Diego State University(San Diego, California) 20 1993 Right-handed pitcher Florida State University(Tallahassee, Florida) 25 Right-handed pitcher Stanford University(Stanford, California) 36§ 1994 Outfielder Martin High School(Arlington, Texas) 1995 Right-handed pitcher Fajardo University(Santiago de Cuba, Cuba) 1996 Third baseman Mount Carmel High School(San Diego, California) 10 1997 Right-handed pitcher West Virginia University(Morgantown, West Virginia) 11 Left-handed pitcher Mississippi State University(Mississippi State, Mississippi) 21 Outfielder Pinole Valley High School(Pinole, California) 32§ Right-handed pitcher Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University(Blacksburg, Virginia) 42§ 1998 Left-handed pitcher Michigan State University(East Lansing, Michigan) 1999 Left-handed pitcher University of Southern California(Los Angeles, California) 2000 2001 Shortstop California State University, Long Beach(Long Beach, California) 25 Right-handed pitcher Pasco High School(Pasco, Washington) 26 Left-handed pitcher Southwest Missouri State University(Springfield, Missouri) 37§ 2002 First baseman Ohio State University(Columbus, Ohio) 16 Right-handed pitcher University of Kentucky(Lexington, Kentucky) 24 Shortstop University of Maryland, College Park(College Park, Maryland) 26 Right-handed pitcher California State University, Fresno(Fresno, California) 30 Catcher University of Alabama(Tuscaloosa, Alabama) 35§ Right-handed pitcher University of Evansville(Evansville, Indiana) 37§ Third baseman Saint Mary's College of California(Moraga, California) 39§ 2003 Right-handed pitcher University of Houston(Houston, Texas) 25 Third baseman Stetson University(DeLand, Florida) 26 Shortstop University of Texas at Austin(Austin, Texas) 33§ 2004 Catcher University of South Carolina(Columbia, South Carolina) 24 Outfielder California State University, Fresno(Fresno, California) 26 Outfielder Stanford University(Stanford, California) 36§ Right-handed pitcher University of Texas at Austin(Austin, Texas) 40§ 2005 Shortstop Texas A&M University(College Station, Texas) 21 Outfielder Arizona State University(Tempe, Arizona) 36§ 2006 2007 Right-handed pitcher University of California, Riverside(Riverside, California) 26 First baseman University of Virginia(Charlottesville, Virginia) 41§ Outfielder Oklahoma State University–Stillwater(Stillwater, Oklahoma) 59§ 2008 Second baseman University of Miami(Coral Gables, Florida) 12 2009 Shortstop University of Southern California(Los Angeles, California) 13 2010 Center fielder University of Texas at Arlington(Arlington, Texas) 10 2011 Right-handed pitcher Vanderbilt University(Nashville, Tennessee) 18 2012 Shortstop Pace High School(Pace, Florida) 11 Shortstop Upland High School(Upland, California) 34§ 2012 First baseman Parkview High School(Lilburn, Georgia) 47§ 2013 Outfielder Plano West Senior High School(Plano, Texas) 24 2014 Third baseman California State University, Fullerton(Fullerton, California) 25 2015 Shortstop University of Florida(Gainesville, Florida) 20 2016 Left-handed pitcher University of Florida(Gainesville, Florida) 6 Right-handed pitcher University of California, Berkeley(Berkeley, California) 37§ 2017 Outfielder North Davidson High School(Lexington, North Carolina) 6 Shortstop University of South Florida(Tampa, Florida) 33§ 2018 Outfielder University of Oklahoma(Norman, Oklahoma) 9 2019 Shortstop Clemson University(Clemson, South Carolina) 29 2020 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 2025 Jamie Arnold left-handed Pitcher Florida State Seminoles baseball(Tallahassee, Florida) 11 2026 Drew Burress Outfielder Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets baseball(Atlanta, Georgia) 8
See also Oakland Athletics minor league players
Footnotes Through the 2012 draft, free agents were evaluated by the Elias Sports Bureau and rated "Type A", "Type B", or not compensation-eligible. If a team offered arbitration to a player but that player refused and subsequently signed with another team, the original team was able to receive additional draft picks. If a "Type A" free agent left in this way, his previous team received a supplemental pick and a compensatory pick from the team with which he signed. If a "Type B" free agent left in this way, his previous team received only a supplemental pick. Since the 2013 draft, free agents are no longer classified by type; instead, compensatory picks are only awarded if the team offered its free agent a contract worth at least the average of the 125 current richest MLB contracts. However, if the free agent's last team acquired the player in a trade during the last year of his contract, it is ineligible to receive compensatory picks for that player. The Athletics gained a compensatory first-round pick in 1978 from the Texas Rangers as compensation for losing free agent Mike Jorgensen. The Athletics gained a compensatory first-round pick in 1979 from the Boston Red Sox as compensation for losing free agent Steve Renko. The Athletics lost their first-round pick in 1982 to the Boston Red Sox as compensation for signing free agent Joe Rudi. The Athletics lost their first-round pick in 1989 to the Seattle Mariners as compensation for signing free agent Mike Moore. The Athletics gained a compensatory first-round pick in 1990 from the Milwaukee Brewers as compensation for losing free agent Dave Parker. The Athletics gained a supplemental first-round pick in 1990 for losing free agent Storm Davis. The Athletics gained a supplemental first-round pick in 1990 for losing free agent Dave Parker.