The conventional wisdom around drafting amateur players, especially the later in gets in the process, is that it’s essentially a crap shoot. There’s a lot of opinions and variables to sift through, and the reality is that many times even the best talent evaluators are going to get it wrong. But other times, it can seem a whole lot easier.
That is the situation the Orioles found themselves in with the 31st overall pick in the 2025 draft. Wehiwa Aloy, the reigning Golden Spikes Award and SEC Player of the Year winner, who was considered a top 20 talent in the class, was still on the board. The Orioles under Mike Elias love themselves a proven college hitter, especially one that players a premium position. It was a perfect match.
Since being selected, Aloy has been everything the Orioles could have hoped. He had a 20-game stint in Delmarva last summer. There he posted an impressive .288/.356/.500 line, which was enough to prove to the organization that he didn’t need to go back there this season.
His 2026 campaign was split between High-A and Double-A. Between the two levels he hit .288/.358/.506 with 25 home runs, 92 RBI, 84 runs scored, and 20 stolen bases (on 23 attempts). For that performance, he earned the honor of being named the Brooks Robinson Minor League Player of the Year in the Orioles organization.
That sort of production could be enough to get him into consideration for all of the “Top 100” lists, this offseason though the only one he has cracked to this point was Keith Law’s (#73), which has not been fully updated since the start of the year. Notably, Aloy was not on Law’s smaller “Top 50” list, which came out in late May.
This season began in High-A Frederick for Aloy, where he started to experience the ups and downs that you would expect for a young player being challenged in the professional ranks.
His OPS by month from April through July looked like this: .714, 1.026, .606, 1.071. That’s quite the roller coaster ride for the 22-year-old, though it averaged out to an .874 OPS with a 123 wRC+ on the season for Frederick. Overall, those are good numbers, though not overwhelming so when you consider most top prospects.
That performance was enough for the Orioles to give him a promotion to Double-A Chesapeake for the final two months of the season. He found some more consistency there, posting an OPS of .883 in August followed by .930 in September to wrap up his first full pro season in fine form.
Aloy showed off a knack for the long ball through 2026 as well. He hit 15 home runs with Frederick and then followed that with 10 more at Chesapeake for a total of 25 over 123 games. Only a handful of big league shortstops will end up hitting 25 homers this season, which makes Aloy’s offensive profile quite attractive for the position.
As often happens with players that have a power element to their game, strikeouts are a bit of a concern for Aloy. The folks at FanGraphs point out that “elevated chase likely contributed to a draft day fall.” They go on to explain that Aloy has been “whiff prone” in the pro ranks, though he shaved just a bit off of his strikeout rate, from 27.8% last year to 26.5% in 2026. That did jump back up to 28.5% in Double-A, so it is worth watching.
Whether or not Aloy can stick at shortstop doesn’t seem to be much of a question at this point. MLB Pipeline reports that “Despite fringy speed, Aloy should be able to stick at shortstop given his smooth actions, reliable hands and strong arm, and his range and instincts allow him to project as at least an average defender up the middle.” The crew at FanGraphs largely agrees, saying “He’s a plus athlete with an athletic build, a plus arm, above-average range, and average hands. He struggles some with hot shots, but otherwise looks like a pretty clean shortstop fit.”
For what it’s worth, the Orioles seem quite committed to making him a shortstop. Out of the 109 games in which he saw playing time in the field this year, 90 of them were spent at short with the remaining 19 at third base.
It’s common for players to develop as shortstops and then move off of it as they get closer to the bigs, particularly if there is already someone cemented at shortstop on the major league squad. The Oriole do currently have Gunnar Henderson, who despite struggles this year is not going to move off of the position any time soon. However, he is only under team control through the 2028 season, and the likelihood of a contract extension seems slim. So it is possible that Aloy becomes the “shortstop of the future” in Baltimore.
That future is probably not coming in 2027 though. The Orioles should be trying to compete next season, which would mean holding onto Henderson. Meanwhile, Aloy has only played 39 games of Double-A ball, and needs more seasoning. You may see him appear in some major league spring training games, but his regular season will begin back at Chesapeake, where he will need to prove he has conquered the level before the Orioles give him a promotion to Triple-A. His big league debut, if all things continue to go well, is likely slated for some time in 2028.
