Wyatt Henseler\u2019s first priority when choosing a place to play college baseball was securing a quality education. He did that by graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2024.<\/p>\n
Henseler next wanted to land at one of the country\u2019s elite college baseball programs. Heaccomplished that by playing every game for Texas A&M this spring.<\/p>\n
Henseler, an Emmaus High graduate, now wants to continue his baseball journey in the pros. He will be home with his family when the Major League Baseball Draft takes place Sunday and Monday, waiting to see if one of 30 teams select him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s 20 rounds now instead of 40 or 50 [the way there used to be], so definitely there\u2019s less opportunities,\u201d Henseler said by phone Wednesday night from Dallas, where he was delayed a day from his return flight home. \u201cI\u2019ve seen my draft stock, it hasn\u2019t changed too much in terms of what it\u2019s been the last two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that\u2019s completely different now is that I\u2019m out of [college] eligibility. So, there\u2019s not as much leverage there in the sense of where I could go. There\u2019s going to be teams with opportunities to save money, and that usually happens with older guys like myself, fifth-year guys that are out of eligibility, senior signs. That\u2019s a whole rabbit hole to get into.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of unsure of where there\u2019s an opening, but from what I\u2019m being told, there\u2019s a lot of confidence that my name will be called in a good spot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henseler considered pursuing the draft after his 2024 college season, when he was unanimously voted the Ivy League player of the year. The third baseman set the Ivy League\u2019s single-season home run record (22). He also established Ivy League career records for homers (54), RBIs (189) and total bases (560).<\/p>\n
He instead stuck with his commitment to spend a graduate-student season at Texas A&M. He didn\u2019t enjoy the team success he hoped for as the Aggies, the preseason No. 1 in the country, failed to qualify for the NCAA playoffs this spring.<\/p>\n
Henseler still thrived individually. He met the jump in competition from the Ivy League to the SEC by posting a .319\/.423\/.562 slash line and starting all 56 games. He led the Aggies with 15 doubles while adding 12 homers, 48 runs and 33 RBIs.<\/p>\n
Henseler\u2019s numbers earned him a spot on the ABCA\/Rawlings Central All-Region first team. It gave him three straight years as a first-team all-region selection; he twice made the East all-region first team for Penn.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was unbelievable,\u201d Henseler said of his year at Texas A&M. \u201cAll I\u2019ve ever known was the Northeast. Growing up in the Lehigh Valley, originally born in New Jersey, went to school in Philly in four years, so it was great to be able to experience something different in a college town like College Station.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor people in the Northeast, I\u2019ve always compared it to, it\u2019s a very Happy Valley\/Penn State kind of feel, where down here people love to support their school. Everything\u2019s about the school in that town. I had a great opportunity to come down here and experience baseball at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Henseler has used the time since Texas A&M\u2019s season ended in late May to rest and rebuild his body. He stayed in College Station through June to work out at Texas A&M.<\/p>\n
Henseler said he feels stronger and healthier after dealing with some minor injuries late this season. He\u2019s ready for a run at pro baseball, whether he\u2019s drafted or signs as a post-draft free agent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll cross that bridge when we get there,\u201d Henseler said. \u201cMy agent and I and my coaches, they feel pretty confident that I\u2019ll get that opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m lucky enough to get it, I\u2019d love to take it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stephen Miller is a freelance writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wyatt Henseler\u2019s first priority when choosing a place to play college baseball was securing a quality education. He…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276],"tags":[5,1703,2291,4,1586,185,4802],"class_list":{"0":"post-170605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-college-sports","10":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-mlb-draft","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114840203866465076","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}