The Oakland Athletics selected Colby Halter with the 496th overall pick of the 2023 MLB draft.
Day 3 selections don’t have slot values assigned to them, but anything over $150,000 comes out of a team’s bonus pool, according to Baseball America. That bonus pool money isn’t untouchable, but it is typically reserved for wooing high school players away from commitments.
Halter might not be the ideal candidate for a massive deal, which begs the question of whether he will return or not. It all comes down to money, but Halter just watched Josh Rivera gamble on himself and end up as a third-round pick.
While Halter’s .247/.354/.397 slash line may be somewhat underwhelming, his metrics paint a promising picture. Halter lowered his strikeout rate from 22.4% to 15.7% in 2023 and also started walking a bit more (10.2% to 11.6%).
His home run-per-fly ball rate was an incredibly low 4.0%, which suggests some unluckiness at the plate. Halter’s fly ball rate was higher than ever, though, jumping from 38.3% to 52.9% year over year. A little more muscle could call for a power surge from Halter in 2024 if he does return.
At the end of the day, the A’s can meet whatever number Halter gives and end all the speculation, but anyone who follows baseball knows that Oakland isn’t the most liberal with money.
If he does leave, Halter departs Florida with a career .259 average, a .354 on-base percentage, a .405 slugging percentage, 151 hits, 31 doubles, 14 home runs and 89 runs batted in over 163 starts in 173 games.
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Story originally appeared on Gators Wire