KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the third year in a row, the A’s will have a top-10 pick when the major-league draft gets under way Monday afternoon.
In 2016, Oakland was delighted when Florida left-hander A.J. Puk unexpectedly fell to the sixth spot. Last year, the team took high school outfielder Austin Beck with the sixth spot.
On Monday, the team drafts ninth, which can make the process a little trickier; it’s harder to handicap which players will be available, but there’s certainly a chance a projected top-five player drops without warning, as Puk did.
“Everyone in the room is confident there will be an impact player available at nine,” A’s general manager David Forst said Sunday. “It’s a little lower than we’ve picked the last couple of years — and hopefully we’ll continue to have an even lower pick in the years to come — but as our draft board is set up heading into Monday, we’re excited about the possibilities.”
The A’s worked out third baseman Nolan Gorman, a high school player from Arizona, at the Coliseum on Friday. He’s among the options Oakland is considering along with Gorman’s best friend and Team USA teammate, left-hander Matthew Liberatore, should he fall that far (some mock drafts have Liberatore going as early as third). Oakland typically doesn’t take high school pitchers in the first round, but might make an exception for Liberatore.
“I wouldn’t say we’re focused on any one position or demographic at the top of this draft,” Forst said of the high school-versus-college player debate.
South Alabama center fielder Travis Swaggerty is the player most often linked to the A’s and he remains the best bet, but South Florida lefty Shane McClanahan could be a target, given the team’s need for pitching and usual emphasis on college starters. The A’s also like Stanford shortstop Nico Hoerner a lot, but they’ll probably hope Hoerner, who is from Oakland, somehow lasts until their next pick, which is No. 50 overall.
“We think there’s a lot of talent throughout this draft,” Forst said. “There’s a very strong group of college pitchers at the top of the draft, but there are good players throughout as you get deeper into it.”
Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.