Draft bonus tracker: A’s sign 2nd-round pick Henry Bolte, plus six other picks

The 2022 MLB draft is in the books, and now teams can go about the business of signing their picks to professional contracts.

The Oakland A’s began striking deals over the past few days, inking seven of their top 10 picks. The list includes two of their top three selections.

• 2nd round: Henry Bolte, high school OF (link)
• Comp B round: Clark Elliott, college OF (link)
• 5th round: Jack Perkins, college RHP (link)
• 6th round: Brennan Milone, college 3B (link)
• 7th round: Yeniel Laboy, high school 3B (link)
• 8th round: Micah Dallas, college RHP (link)
• 9th round: Caeden Trenkle, college OF (link)

Learn more about each of these new prospects at the following links:

• Bolte scouting report
• Elliott scouting report
• Perkins, Milone, Laboy, Dallas, Trenkle

Bolte got a bonus far above his slot value as the 56th overall pick, which is to be expected for a high schooler being wooed away from a top-tier college commitment (University of Texas). To help account for some of that overspending, the other six picks who signed by today went under-slot.

The A’s made 11 picks within the first 10 rounds, and they have a total bonus pool of $8,320,200 with which to work. Here’s where the group stands so far.

The rest of the picks will need to sign by the Aug. 1 deadline. The team is over their allotted bonus pool so far by $288,650, after shelling out to pry Bolte away from college, but they’re still on track toward where they need to end up. They can go 5% over their pool amount without incurring any meaningful penalties, which equals an overage of $416,010, so really their limit is more like $8,736,210 if they need it. That means they can still go $127,360 over-slot on the remaining unsigned picks.

Oakland has also signed most of their lower-round picks. They’ve agreed with each of their 12th-round through 19th-round picks, and those players won’t count against the bonus pool because none of them got more than $125,000, reports Baseball America. Still on the table is 11th-rounder Christian Oppor, a high school pitcher, and if he signs for more than the $125K late-round cap then the excess amount would count against the bonus pool.

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Bolte is a local product who went to nearby Palo Alto High School, and on Monday he said the A’s were his favorite team growing up, via Matt Kawahara of the S.F. Chronicle.

“Playing in the big leagues has always been my dream as a little kid. But getting a chance to play for the hometown team, team that was my favorite team growing up, can’t really pass up on that opportunity.”

Of course, “growing up” wasn’t that long ago for him, as noted by Kawahara:

Henry Bolte, 18, aging the A’s beat: “When I was younger, Coco Crisp was fun to see too. He’s an old one from when I was a little guy that I used to like to watch.” (He clarified he was not calling Coco Crisp old).

Oof. My response is a laughing emoji followed by sobbing emoji.

On the bright side, the kid took some impressive swings at the Coliseum today, which you can see in the video below. Welcome to Bolte and the other new A’s prospects!