Ryan Prager Announces Intention To Return To Texas A&M
Image credit: Ryan Prager (Photo by Eddie Kelly / ProLook Photos)
On Wednesday afternoon Angels third-round lefthander Ryan Prager announced his intentions to return to school at Texas A&M.
Prager ranked as the No. 66 prospect in the class and the fifth-best college lefthander (including two-way player Jac Caglianone) after consistently pitching at a high level throughout the SEC this spring for the Aggies. Prager posted a 2.95 ERA over 19 starts and 97.2 innings with a 31.2% strikeout rate and 5% walk rate.
His 26.1 K-BB% was the fourth-best among SEC pitchers, behind only Arkansas lefthander Hagen Smith, Georgia righthander Kolten Smith and Tennessee righthander AJ Causey.
Prager, who turns 22 in October, made 16 starts during his 2022 freshman season then missed the entire 2023 season with injury, making him a redshirt sophomore in 2024. He’ll return to Texas A&M with two more seasons of eligibility, which will give him additional leverage in the 2025 draft.
Expected to be a day one selection, Prager slid slightly to the third round where the Angels selected him with the 81st overall pick, which comes with an assigned slot value of $948,600.
Prager becomes the first player selected in the first 10 rounds of the 2024 draft to announce his decision to not sign. Last year, just one player—Cardinals 10th-rounder Caden Kendle—didn’t sign. Throughout the bonus pool era of the draft (2012-2023) 98.7% of top-10 round selections have signed.
When teams don’t sign players picked in the first 10 rounds they lose the assigned slot value from their bonus pool allotment, though top-three round selections are protected with compensation picks in the following draft for unsigned players.
For an unsigned third-rounder, the team is given a supplemental selection after the completion of the third round of the next draft. That means if and when Prager goes unsigned at the signing deadline (Aug. 1 at 5 p.m. ET) the Angels will get a compensation pick after the third round of the 2025 draft. The Angels had a total bonus pool of $12,990,400 before the draft, but without the slot value for their third round selection, that total falls to $12,041,800.
Baseball America has reported signing bonus figures for 15 of the Angels’ 21 draftees, with a total value from the bonus pool at $10,578,000. When also factoring in Trey Gregory-Alford’s reported bonus (via MLB.com’s Jim Callis) of $1,957,500, of which $1,807,500 counts toward the pool, that puts the Angels at a total bonus pool hit of $12,385,500—2.6% over the adjusted bonus pool, but within the 5% overage threshold that many teams have been willing to go to without incurring future draft pick penalties.
Had the Angels signed Prager for near slot value with the 81st pick, they would have been in that same 2.6% overage range with their initial total bonus pool.
