Monday Morning Maui Sports: Wehiwa Aloy signs with Orioles, Jaxon Grossman decides to attend University of Oklahoma

Wehiwa Aloy’s professional baseball life began Saturday when he signed a contract to play for the Baltimore Orioles.

Jaxon Grossman hopes his professional life in baseball will begin in a year or two.

In a rare occurrence for Maui, according to local baseball coaches and scouts, two players from the Valley Isle were selected in the same Major League Baseball draft on July 13-14.

One previous time it happened was 1999 when two-time World Series champion Shane Victorino and Jamie Aloy were both selected, Victorino out of St. Anthony High School by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the sixth round and Jamie Aloy, a Baldwin High School graduate and Wehiwa Aloy’s father, selected out of the University of Hawai‘i by the San Francisco Giants in the 48th round.

The next time two Mauians were selected in the MLB draft was 2004 when World Series champion Kurt Suzuki was taken in the second round by the Oakland A’s out of Cal State Fullerton and Kanekoa Texeira was taken in the 31st round by the Milwaukee Brewers out of Kamehameha Schools on O‘ahu. Texeira did not sign in 2004, electing instead to attend Saddleback Junior College in California.

Wehiwa Aloy, a 2022 Baldwin High School graduate, was the first Maui player ever selected in the first round, going 31st overall to the Orioles — he broke the Maui record of 67th overall set by Suzuki. Aloy officially signed his contract on Saturday morning and then got a quick tour of Oriole Park at Camden Yards stadium.

While he declined to say how much his signing bonus was, MLB.com reported that he signed for $3,042,800, the same value assigned to his No. 31 spot by Major League Baseball, although teams and players can vary higher or lower from those numbers.

“The hospitality the guys at Baltimore showed us was amazing,” Aloy said Saturday in his first interview following the signing.

After his tour of Camden Yards and a little of the city of Baltimore, Aloy was on a jet to Instructional League in Florida where he will be for a week or two. Then he will be sent to either the Aberdeen (Md.) IronBirds of the High A South Atlantic League or the Low A Delmarva (Md.) Shorebirds of the Carolina League.

“I’m just very excited to get to start this journey,” said Aloy, a shortstop who just finished his junior year with the University of Arkansas at the College World Series. “And this past year just created a lot of new bonds and relationships with all the teammates and coaches over there. And it was a really fun year we had.”

Aloy won the Golden Spikes Award that goes to the best amateur baseball player in the nation — the first from Maui to do so — but now he is officially a professional baseball player.

“I just can’t wait to get back out there on the field,” Wehiwa Aloy said. 

Grossman, a 2022 graduate of King Kekaulike High School, was selected in the 16th round of the 20-round draft by the Texas Rangers out of Salt Lake (Utah) Community College, which he helped win the National Junior College Athletic Association championship in May. 

Grossman said Sunday that he has decided to attend the University of Oklahoma to play baseball for the 2026 season — he has two college seasons of eligibility left — and hopes to improve his draft position either next year or in two years.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to play in the (Southeastern Conference),“ Grossman said. “I mean, it was a great opportunity to get selected and I just had the opportunity to play for the Rangers, but I think the best path moving forward is going to Oklahoma and seeing what happens with that.”

Grossman, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound right-handed pitcher, spent the 2023 season at the University of Utah where he pitched in just two games. He sat out the 2024 season to rehabilitate a slight injury, regroup and find his love for the game again.

During the 2025 season Grossman was the pitcher of the tournament at the JuCo national championship tournament, collecting two wins on the mound, allowing just three earned runs and eight hits in 11 innings. For the season, he finished 6-0 with 5.15 earned run average over 14 appearances which included nine starts. He struck out 55 and walked 18 in 50 2/3 innings.

He has not been to Norman, Okla., yet but will arrive there this fall.

“I’m super excited for the opportunity at Oklahoma,” said Grossman, who turned 21 years old in March. 

He added that his role will be determined once he arrives. He said he touched 99 mph in early season outings for Salt Lake Community College.

“They told me they want me to replace one of their weekend starters,” Grossman said. “And I just have to find my role once I get there.”

Aloy was accompanied to Baltimore by his parents, Jamie and Napua Aloy, while his younger brother Kuhio, a teammate at Arkansas, was winning the home run derby on Saturday for the prestigious Cape Cod League for college players.

Wehiwa Aloy said he realized he could be this good at baseball during two college transitions — the summer of 2022 when he played in a college summer league before his freshman year at Sacramento State University and then prior to transferring to Arkansas in the fall of 2023 for the 2024 season. 

He said the best part of it all is the opportunities he hopes he has created for younger players in the Maui baseball hotbed.

“Just kind of paving the way for the kids back at home, showing them that it’s possible and just trying to be a good role model to them,” Aloy said. “That’s the best part for me.”

Jamie Aloy was a standout pitcher and first baseman at the University of Hawai‘i — he chosen 1,426th overall in 1999.

Xavier Nady, a college opponent of Jamie Aloy’s, was the main agent who helped guide Wehiwa through the signing process that took a week to finish.

Jamie Aloy decided to return to UH for his senior season in 2000 and did not end up playing professional baseball, but now his oldest son will and quite possibly Kuhio Aloy will join the mix as soon as next year.  

“That’s super cool,” Jamie Aloy said. “It was something I dreamed about as a kid and now it’s happening for our son. So, so happy and we’ve been … so blessed for him, for both the boys, actually.”

Only four players from Maui have ever made it to Major League Baseball — Antone Rego in 1921 with the St. Louis Browns; Victorino, a 12-year veteran who won the World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies; Suzuki, who played 16 years for several teams and won the World Series with the Washington Nationals; and Kanekoa Texeira, who pitched in 2010 and 2011 for three teams after being re-drafted in the 22nd round in 2006 by the Chicago White Sox.

Wehiwa Aloy is quite likely to join that list. According to Baseball America magazine, more than 80% of first rounders make it to the big leagues.

“I remember growing up just watching a lot of SEC baseball, wanting to play SEC baseball, and I didn’t know it could become a reality by being a Razorback,” Wehiwa Aloy said. “So it was very special. And now we’re on to bigger things.”

“Monday Morning Maui Sports” columns appear weekly on Monday mornings with updates on local sports in the Maui Interscholastic League and elsewhere around Maui County. Please send column ideas — anything having to do with sports in Maui County — as well as results and photos to rob@hjinow.org.