goeddel attended bellarmine college prep in san jose, california, where "baseball america" and perfect game usa ranked him the third-best high school baseball prospect in the united states and canada. after going undrafted in the 2007 major league baseball draft, goeddel enrolled at the university of california, los angeles (ucla), where he played college baseball for the ucla bruins. in 2009, he played collegiate summer baseball with the brewster whitecaps of the cape cod baseball league.