{"id":750231,"date":"2026-07-13T01:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T01:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/750231\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T01:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T01:30:15","slug":"soquel-ace-jake-escalante-drafted-by-athletics-on-day-2-of-2026-mlb-draft-santa-cruz-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/750231\/","title":{"rendered":"Soquel ace Jake Escalante drafted by Athletics on Day 2 of 2026 MLB Draft \u2013 Santa Cruz Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently graduated Soquel High ace Jake Escalante, currently rehabbing his left arm after undergoing Tommy John surgery in early June, was drafted by the Athletics on Day 2 of the 2026 MLB Draft on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Cal State Fullerton commit, who repeated as the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League\u2019s Player of the Year this spring, was chosen with the eighth pick of 19th round, 561st overall.<\/p>\n

Escalante was \u201cchillin\u201d in his bedroom when he received a call from his agent, Adam Karon of APEX Baseball, who let him know that he was likely going to be selected soon.<\/p>\n

Even injured, Escalante said he was expecting to go several rounds higher. But he was still grateful to see his name pop up on MLB.com\u2019s Draft Tracker.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to the A\u2019s guys and I was extremely thankful,\u201d Escalante said. \u201cI\u2019ll talk to my parents and agent about it. I\u2019m glad it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Escalante was one of 11 pitchers taken by the A\u2019s in the 20-round draft. They chose Arkansas junior right-hander Gabe Gaeckle<\/a>, an Aptos alum, with their Competitive Balance Round B pick, 73rd overall, on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Players drafted after Round 10 typically don\u2019t receive a signing bonus that exceeds $150,000, though there are exceptions. College seniors often sign for less because they don\u2019t have any leverage. Escalante has his commitment to Fullerton as leverage. If he signs a pro contract, he\u2019ll forego his college playing career.<\/p>\n

Negotiations between Escalante\u2019s agent and the A\u2019s will take place in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Days ahead of the draft, Escalante said, \u201cI\u2019d love to play professional baseball and I think I\u2019m ready to play it. But, it\u2019s also, I\u2019m not going to go for free. And I\u2019m not going to risk me not getting a college experience for something cheap.\u201d<\/p>\n

Escalante said he was surprised the A\u2019s chose him. He said the organization didn\u2019t reach out to him, his high school coach or agent at any point during the scouting\/draft process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI obviously wanted to go a lot sooner and I expected to go sooner,\u201d Escalante said. \u201cI\u2019m past that now and I\u2019m extremely thankful for the A\u2019s. I\u2019m extremely thankful for my family and everybody who helped me through the way. The injury didn\u2019t help, but I\u2019m thankful for everything that happened. It\u2019s just a speed bump in my journey. I\u2019m excited to work through it. I know i\u2019m going to get better from it because I\u2019m going to have a hardworking mentality, like I always do. I\u2019m not worried about what\u2019s next for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Escalante went 10-1 this spring for Soquel (23-6 overall, 13-2 league), the repeat SCCAL champion and Central Coast Section Division I finalist. He posted a 1.35 ERA over 57 innings. He gave up 27 hits and 13 runs, 11 of which were earned, and struck out 91 batters while walking 21.<\/p>\n

He has been participating in rehab and physical therapy and working out daily at Rossy\u2019s Training since his surgery, which was performed by Dr. Kenneth Akizuki, the primary orthopedic surgeon of the San Francisco Giants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWherever I land, they\u2019re going to be happy with me, because I\u2019m going to improve,\u201d Escalante said. \u201cI\u2019m going to improve the organizations or college teams, and I\u2019m going to work hard to get back where I was at, or even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recently graduated Soquel High ace Jake Escalante, currently rehabbing his left arm after undergoing Tommy John surgery in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":750232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2391],"tags":[38386,537,5,69638,13711,76629,4,3226,93028,93027],"class_list":["post-750231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-athletics","tag-2026-mlb-draft","tag-athletics","tag-baseball","tag-cal-state-fullerton-baseball","tag-jim-seimas","tag-las-vegas-as","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-athletics","tag-sacramento-as","tag-soquel-high-left-handed-pitcher-jake-escalante"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116910084866061764","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/750232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}