The Athletics don't have a great track record of throwing money around, so when they do, people notice. Jim Callis, MLB.com's draft insider, dropped the number on Drew Burress' signing bonus and it's a big one: $7.5 million, well north of the $6,982,600 assigned to the No. 8 slot where Oakland drafted him.
1st-rder Drew Burress signs w/@Athletics for $7.5 million (slot 8 value = $6,982,600). Believe he'll be highest pick to get over-slot bonus. @GTBaseball OF, solid to plus tools across the board, school-record 60 HR in three seasons. @MLBDraft
Callis' framing is the whole story here: he believes Burress will end up as the highest-picked player in this draft to land an over-slot bonus. That's not just a footnote, that's the Athletics signaling they were willing to go over the line to lock down a guy they clearly view as one of the best college bats available, slot number be damned.
And it's easy to see why. Burress spent three seasons at Georgia Tech and left as the program's all-time home run king, setting the school record with 60 homers, a number that includes a single-game school record of 4 blasts just 8 games into his freshman year. He was a consensus First-Team All-American in both 2025 and 2026 and a Golden Spikes finalist all three years he suited up for the Yellow Jackets.
The scouting profile is the fun part. Burress is listed at 5-foot-9, 185 pounds, which isn't exactly prototypical first-round-outfielder size, but scouts have consistently pointed to a compact, quick swing that produces plus power to all fields, plus excellent plate discipline for a guy who hits the ball as hard as he does. That combination of hit tool and pop is exactly what made him the top college outfielder in this draft class heading into the summer.
There's still the usual questions that come with any undersized power hitter making the leap to pro ball and wood bats, whether the raw juice fully translates once he's not squaring up aluminum against college arms. But the Athletics clearly weren't worried enough to play it cheap, and paying a record over-slot number for a pick outside the top 5 tells you everything about how they're valuing him internally.
Now it's on to the actual development track. Oakland's farm system has quietly gotten interesting the last couple years, and adding a bat with this kind of pedigree at this kind of price only raises the stakes on how quickly Burress can move. The next checkpoint is simple: watch for where he opens his first pro season and how the power looks against real velocity.