Yes, absolutely a thing for some colleges who depend on full pay students to “recruit” full pay athletes. It’s like the converse of using sports to get your student over the top in a high academic school, now the school is using athletics to attract full pays.
The OP’s kid has excellent academics. Most D3’s take on walk-ons because the number of supported recruits is limited. He probably has a place on a team if he is in the low 80’s, probably even in the high 70’s. Baseball teams never have enough pitchers. IMO, OP should look for academic fit first because he likely can walk on if he has had recruiting interest in some places already. The harder issue will be matching academic fit within a budget, net of FA or merit.