Athletics Sign Criswell, Guldberg, Acker from 5-Man Draft Class of 2020

The Oakland Athletics, having signed their second, third and fourth picks in the June draft, will continue to work on getting first-round pick Tyler Soderstrom, a high school catcher from Turlock to strike a deal.

The Oakland Athletics have signed three of their five picks from the June draft and one undrafted player.

Right-handed pitcher Jeff Criswell from Michigan, outfielder Michael Gulberg from Georgia Tech and right-handed pitcher Dane Acker from Oklahoma, the second, third and fourth picks for the A’s, have signed.

Also signing is Wake Forest catcher Will Simoneit, who went unchosen in the draft, which was cut from 40 rounds last year to five rounds this time around.

Left unsigned are first-round pick Tyler Soderstrom, a high school catcher out of Turlock High, and fifth-round pick Stevie Emanuels, a right-handed pitcher out of the University of Washington.

Criswell was an All-Big Ten first team pick last year as a sophomore, going 7-1 with a 2.72 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 106 innings.

Guldberg had a .374 batting average with three homers and 50 RBI in 104 games over three seasons with Georgia Tech.

Acker didn’t spend much time at Oklahoma after pitching a San Jacinto College last year, but he made some huge noise by throwing a no-hitter against LSU in one of his four starts.

Simoneit played for Cornell for four season and was All-Ivy League as a sophomore, junior and senior. He then went to Wake Forest as a grad student had was hitting .377 with five doubles, three homers and 12 RBI in 17 games for the Demon Deacons.

Emanuels told SI that he expected to sign, but it may be more difficult to get Soderstrom’s name on a contract. The catcher, whose father pitched briefly for the San Francisco Giants in 1996, has been offered a scholarship from UCLA.

Loyola Marymount catcher Cooper Uhl, right-handed reliever Garrett Acton from Illinois and right-handed starter Grant Judkins from Iowa have reportedly signed by the A’s, but they were not mentioned on this first list.

Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3

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