OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Oakland A's have agreed to terms with 31 of their 40 selections from the 2017 First-Year Player Draft, including their first round selection Austin Beck, an outfielder from North Davidson (NC) High School.
Beck hit .590 with 12 home runs and 38 RBI in 28 games as a senior. He also notched 11 doubles and scored 41 runs. He finished his four-year high school career with a .457 batting average and 23 home runs in 103 games.
The A's also agreed to terms with infielder Kevin Merrell from South Florida, a Lottery Round A pick (33rd selection overall). As a junior in 2017, Merrell led the American Athletic Conference with a .384 batting average on his way to a Second Team All-American nod from Baseball America. The 6-1, 189-pound Odessa, Fla. native was a two-time First Team American Athletic Conference performer (2016-17) and currently ranks eighth in program history with 56 stolen bases. He led the team in hitting in each of his three seasons with the Bulls, becoming the first player in program history to lead the club in hitting in three consecutive seasons.
Other top picks that agreed to terms were infielder Will Toffey (4th round, Vanderbilt), catcher Santis Sanchez (5th round, IBA, Puerto Rico), left-handed pitcher Logan Salow (6th round, Kentucky) and right-handed pitcher Parker Dunshee (7th round, Wake Forest). Toffey led Vanderbilt with a .354 batting average and a .602 slugging percentage. Sanchez started 2017 on the Rawlings-Perfect Game Preseason Third Team All-American list and was named to the First Team for the Canada/Puerto Rico Region. Salow made 31 relief appearances for Kentucky and ended the season with a 2-6 record and 12 saves. Dunshee went 9-1 as a member of Wake Forest's rotation during his senior season, ending with a 3.91 ERA over 103.2 innings pitched.
A complete list of drafted and signed players is below.
RND PLAYER, POS.   YR. SCHOOL / HOMETOWN
1 Austin Beck, OF   HS North Davidson HS / Clemmons, NC
L-A Kevin Merrell, INF   Jr. U. of South Florida / Odessa, FL
2 Greg Deichmann, OF  Jr. LSU / Metairie, LA
3 Nick Allen, INF   HS Francis Parker HS / San Diego, CA
4 Will Toffey, INF   Jr. Vanderbilt / Barnstable, MA
5 Santis Sanchez, C   HS IBA / Las Piedras, PR
6 Logan Salow, LHP   Sr. Kentucky / Ashland, KY
7 Parker Dunshee, RHP Sr. Wake Forest / Zionsville, IN
8 Brian Howard, RHP   Sr. TCU / St. Louis, MO
9 Jared Poche, LHP   Sr. LSU / Lutcher, LA
10 Jack Meggs, OF   Sr. Washington / Sammamish, WA
11 Ryan Gridley, INF   Jr. Mississippi State / Milton, GA
12 Aaron Arruda, INF   Jr. Fresno State / Clovis, CA
13 Wyatt Marks, RHP   Jr. Louisiana Lafayette / Lafayette, LA
14 Garrett Mitchell, OF   HS Orange Lutheran HS / Orange, CA
15 Josh Reagan, LHP   Sr. South Carolina / Lexington, SC
16 Payton Squier, OF   Jr. UNLV / El Mirage, AZ
17 Josh Falk, RHP   Sr. Pittsburgh / Tampa, FL
18 Raymond McDonald, OF RJr. Illinois-Chicago / San Mateo, CA
19 Michael Danielak, RHP Sr. Dartmouth / Mt. Prospect, IL
20 Osvaldo Berrios, RHP HS PR Baseball Academy / Juncos, PR
21 Heath Donica, RHP   Sr. Sam Houston State / Corsicana, TX
22 Bryce Conley, RHP   Sr. Georgia State / Alpharetta, GA
23 Malik Jones, RHP   Jr. Missouri Baptist Col. / Atlanta, GA
24 Slater Lee, RHP   Sr. Cal Poly SLO / Carlsbad, CA
25 Hunter Hargrove, INF Sr. Texas Tech / Mansfield, TX
26 Nate Webb, C   HS Martin Luther King HS / Riverside, CA
27 Ben Spitznagel, OF   Sr. UNC Greensboro / Cincinnati, OH
28 Pat Krall, LHP   Sr. Clemson / Marietta, GA
29 Adam Reuss, RHP   Sr. Wisconsin-Milwaukee / Gurnee, IL
30 Cody Puckett, LHP   Sr. Middle Tennessee / Smithville, TN
31 Brandon Withers, RHP RSr. James Madison / Manassas, VA
32 Caleb Evans, RHP   Sr. Liberty / Ewell, MD
33 Jake Lumley, INF   Sr. Canisius College / Windsor, Ontario
34 Justin Jones, INF   RSr. UNLV / Henderson, NV
35 Cooper Goldby, C   Sr. Lewis-Clark State / Yuba City, CA
36 Logan Farrar, OF   Sr. VCU / Woodbridge, VA
37 Raymond Gil, INF   HS Gulliver Prep School / Miami, FL
38 Wil Hoyle, INF   HS Charles E. Jordan HS / Durham, NC
39 Haydn King, LHP   HS Archbishop Mitty HS / Aptos, CA
40 Jacob Hoffman, INF   Sr. Stanford / Palo Alto, CA