A year ago at this time, Chase Silseth was a day away from pitching against the last-place team in the Pac-12. Now he’s a day away from making his Major League debut.
The Los Angeles Angels are planning to promote Silseth from Double-A to start against the Oakland Athletics on Friday night in Oakland, doing so after only eight appearances in the minor leagues and making him the first player from the 2021 MLB Draft to make the big.
Silseth, a 21-year-old right-hander, was taken by the Angels in the 11th round last July. He nearly returned to the UA before Los Angeles signed him for $485,000 just before the deadline last August and ended up throwing just 5.1 innings of pro ball in 2021.
This season, with the Rocket City (Ala.) Trash Pandas in the Southern League, Silseth was 2-0 with a 1.73 ERA in five starts, striking out 37 in 26 innings.
A member of Arizona’s 2021 College World Series team, Silseth went 8-1 with a 5.55 ERA in 18 starts for the Wildcats after transferring from College of Southern Nevada (he began his college career at Tennessee). He struck out 105 in 97.1 innings as the UA’s Friday night starter, starting its CWS opener against Vanderbilt and outpitching future first-round pick Kumar Rocker.
Silseth’s promotion comes three days after the Angels had the first solo no-hitter of the 2022 season throw by 22-year-old lefty Reid Detmers, who was called up in 2021 after only 61 minor league innings.
The last former UA player to make the majors less the year after being drafted was pitcher Daniel Schlereth, who was taken by the Arizona Diamdonbacks in the 1st round in 2008 and then debuted in the bigs in May 2009.