The player voted as the best in college baseball this spring is officially a Baltimore Oriole.
Shortstop Wehiwa Aloy, the No. 31 overall pick in the 2025 MLB draft, signed with the Orioles on Saturday for $3.04 million, a source with direct knowledge of the agreement confirmed to The Baltimore Sun. Aloy, the Golden Spikes Award winner after his stellar campaign for Arkansas, was the Orioles’ third of four first-round picks Sunday. His bonus is the same as the recommended slot value for that pick.
Baseball America ranked Aloy as the No. 16 prospect in the draft class, and he fell to the Orioles with the compensatory pick they received for Anthony Santander leaving in free agency. Aloy, a 21-year-old Hawaii native, hit .350 with a 1.107 OPS and was the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year.
“This guy won the Golden Spikes this year, went to the College World Series finals and hit a million home runs and played really nice defense at a premier program at the University of Arkansas,” said Matt Blood, the Orioles’ vice president for player development and domestic scouting. “He’s been a trend-up guy, he’s gotten better each year in college. We really like just the way he goes about playing the game and his skill set, so we see a lot of upside with him. We did not expect him to get where we were able to draft him, and we’re very excited to be able to get him.”
The Aloy signing comes the day after the Orioles inked catchers Ike Irish and Caden Bodine, their first two picks in the draft at Nos. 19 and 30 overall, to full-slot deals. The Orioles on Saturday also signed Day 1 picks Joseph Dzierwa, a left-handed pitcher from Michigan State, and JT Quinn, a righty from Georgia. Dzierwa, a 6-foot-8 strike thrower, is the earliest pitcher drafted in the Mike Elias era (since the 2019 draft) at No. 58 overall. It’s unclear how much Dzierwa and Quinn signed for.
The Orioles’ fourth first-round pick is the only one yet to sign. High school outfielder Slater de Brun was drafted No. 37 overall with the pick acquired in the Bryan Baker trade. It’s possible that de Brun will need to be paid more than his slot value of $2.63 million to convince him to forgo his commitment to Vanderbilt. Baltimore could have the money to do that. The Orioles’ bonus pool of $19.1 million was the largest in MLB since 2012.
The front office has already saved at least $400,000 by signing pitchers Hunter Allen (seventh round), Kailen Hamson (eighth round) and Dalton Neuschwander (10th round) to under-slot deals. In total, the Orioles drafted 21 college players, three high schoolers, 13 pitchers and 11 hitters in a draft that might be the organization’s most important since the rebuild. The deadline for teams to sign their draft selections is July 28 at 5 p.m.
Read the full story by visiting the Baltimore Sun website.