TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — UPDATE (7/17): On Sunday, Susac was selected by the Oakland A's with the 19th overall pick.
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First round MLB draft picks are rare, even for powerhouse college baseball programs.
Arizona Baseball catcher Daniel Susac is likely to join that list on Sunday after two tremendous years in Tucson.
Susac is projected to go in the first round of the MLB Draft, with most mock drafts putting him between picks 10-20.
If he were to be picked before No. 14 overall, he would become the highest draft pick in Arizona Baseball history. Cleveland selected former Wildcat Trevor Crowe with the 14th overall pick in 2005.
Susac tells KGUN he plans to watch the draft with family in his hometown of Sacramento. His family is especially helpful in preparing for the draft—Daniel's brother Andrew was drafted twice by major league teams, in 2009 and 2011.
"He gives me a lot of advice on, you know, 'It's gonna be your job now and when you're a professional you can't just go to the baseball field like a professional. You have to do everything like a professional. The way you wake up. The way you eat. The way you take care of yourself. The way you work out.' I think that's the biggest thing I've taken from him," Daniel said.
The power-hitting catcher was the 2021 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and followed that up with a productive sophomore season in 2022.
He finished his Arizona career with 24 home runs, 43 doubles, 126 runs batted in, along with an on-base percentage over .400 and a slugging percentage near .600.
Susac says the personal relationships on the team prepared him the most for the next chapter in his career.
"I think the players around me taught me how to be a better leader, how to hold myself accountable as well as others. And I think that's where I grew the most, as a person," said Susac.
He also had two different coaching staffs to learn from at UArizona, led by Jay Johnson and Chip Hale.
"Both groups of coaches taught me a lot," he said. "I think everybody looks at it a different way. And you know I like to pick a lot of brains. I like to get ideas out from every other person. And I think I took, in my opinion, the best part of each of them and kind of combined it into that wisdom that I got from all of them."
The MLB Draft begins at 4 p.m. Arizona time on Sunday.
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