Former Buhach Colony star will make his Major League debut for Oakland A’s on Saturday
Former Buhach Colony High star Daulton Jefferies is scheduled to make his Major League Baseball debut for the Oakland A’s on Saturday. Jefferies will start on the mound in game one of the A’s doubleheader against the Texas Rangers.
Oakland selected Jefferies, who graduated from Buhach Colony in 2013, with the 37th pick overall in the first round of the 2016 MLB draft out of Cal. Jefferies was the Merced Sun-Star High School Baseball Player of the Year in 2012 and 2013.
Buhach Colony baseball coach Greg Wakefield said, “I’m happy for him because he’s worked so hard to overcome quite a bit to get to this point.”
Jefferies underwent Tommy John surgery in 2017, which sidelined him a year. He pitched just two innings in 2018 and then pitched in Single-A and Double-AA for the A’s in 2019.
The right-hander made 26 appearances, including 15 starts. He went 2-2 with a 3.42 ERA over 79 innings in 2019. Jefferies struck out 93 batters and walked just nine that season.
“I’m fired up for him,” said Stanford pitching coach Thomas Eager, who was Jefferies’ pitching coach at Cal.
Eager graduated from Merced High and has known the Jefferies family since he was a kid. Daulton was a bat boy for the Merced Volunteers American Legion team that Eager played on.
“I had the opportunity to coach him and I played with his brother (Jake),” Eager said. “I know how much this means to his family. Now he gets to test himself against some of the best players in the world.”
Joins Dylan Floro in big leagues
Jefferies joins Dodgers reliever Dylan Floro as two former Buhach Colony players currently pitching in the majors.
Jefferies was named to the A’s 40-man roster after the 2019 season. He suffered a strained biceps injury in March during 2020 spring training. He’s been training this summer at the A’s alternate site in San Jose.
Eager sent a text to Jefferies when he heard the news.
“There was some explectives in there,” said Eager, who has had two other former pitchers he’s coached make their MLB debuts this year. “I think it said, “Let’s (bleeping) go. I couldn’t be more proud of you.”
Jefferies will start the first game of the doubleheader scheduled for 2:05 p.m. Per MLB rules there will be no fans but the game is scheduled to be shown on NBC Sports California.
“It’s always pretty special,” Wakefield said. “It doesn’t hit you until you see them on the mound. I’ll be watching on Saturday.”
This story was originally published September 11, 2020 at 4:01 PM.
