To answer your question, I think you have until May to decide on committing to the school academically. If you think your son can get recruited at a JUCO, I don't see why you won't try that route.
I'm not sure 100% sure, but I would assume it is too late to start the recruiting process over for this year. Colleges have already started playing. I've heard recruiting goes on to April, but that isn't the norm.
My son was in the same situation. He got an offer at a D3 in August. I asked a ton of questions and basically coach said he can't do anything about money. He does have a little wiggle room for grades.
I had a really adult discussion with my son. I calculated the tuition cost with and without the merit scholarship. Talked about what he will have to do to pay for college. Would he go to this particular school even without baseball? Is his dream to play ball in college worth it? After the discussion he committed to the D3 and I was going to do whatever it took to make it happen.
We applied EA and he got accepted. But no merit scholarship. Called the school and they indicated there were a lot more qualified candidates this year. I was upset that my son didn't take a final SAT in December to try and raise his score which might have gotten him some money. Realization hit me and I was stressing over how we would pay for it. UC and Cal State deadlines had already past. He applied to 2 additional schools last minute at the Jan 15th deadline.
He got into one of the schools and got a merit scholarship of 8K a year, but the out of pocket ended being higher. Looked at UC tuition including room and board and it wasn't that far off. Financial aid package came the same week. He received about half the tuition and board in the form of a grant. I was so relieved and glad that it worked out for him.
I never considered the merit scholarship as a guarantee. This is on my son and how hard he worked in the classroom.
I'm assuming you filled out FAFSA. And you got no financial aid? This tells me that the government thinks you make too much money or you have too much assets and your EFC is over $40K.
I know college is a lot of money. And if we could afford it, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Some of us don't have too many options. Hope it works out for your son.