Ten former Arizona Wildcats players have appeared in Major League Baseball games this season, and two of them had memorable Wednesdays.
Ex-UA right-handed pitcher Chase Silseth, having a breakout year as a reliever with the Los Angeles Angels, was traded to the Texas Rangers as MLB’s trade deadline approaches next week. And his former teammate in Tucson, catcher Daniel Susac, clubbed his first career home run for the San Francisco Giants.
Silseth, 26, had gone 3-2 with a 2.72 ERA over 47 appearances
with the Angels, striking out 48 over 39.2 innings and holding hitters to a .230 batting average. Los Angeles has the worst record in the American League and is all but sure to miss the playoffs for the 12th straight season, which makes it one of the few teams looking to sell between now and Monday’s trade deadline.
The Angels traded Silseth and catcher Logan O’Hoppe to the Rangers for a minor league infielder.
Texas, despite being only two games above .500, leads the AL West Division by one game. The Rangers are in need of bullpen arms to help hold off the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners for the division crown.
Silseth was an 11th-round pick of the Angels in 2021 after starting the opening game of the College World Series for the UA. He made his MLB debut less than a year later and has made 82 career appearances including 17 starts his first three seasons.
Susac goes deep
The most recent ex-Wildcat to make his big league debut, back on April 1, Susac had played in 44 games with 131 plate appearances entering Wednesday. He had 29 hits, including six doubles and a triple, but had yet to put one over the fence.
That changed in the 2nd inning Wednesday, when he clubbed a 3-run homer to deep center at AT&T Park in San Francisco.
The 25-year-old Susac went 2 for 4 with four RBI and three runs scored in the Giants’ 16-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers. For the season he’s hitting .256 with 19 RBI.
Susac was also on the 2021 CWS team, as a freshman, and a year later was a 1st-round pick of the Athletics. He ended up with San Francisco this offseason via the Rule 5 Draft, which requires him to stay on the MLB roster all season or be offered back to his original club.
