“Gosh, I don’t think we could be two more different people,” Ike Irish joked. “I don’t know if I’ve met a guy who loves life more than Wehiwa does. Man, he lives on island time, that’s the best way to describe it.” 

Perhaps shortstop prospect Wehiwa Aloy found that calm demeanor while fishing near his hometown of Wailuku, Hawaii. Many players remark that they spent parts of their time away from baseball dropping a line, but Aloy’s offseasons on a fishing boat look a bit different. 

“There’s a lot of stuff you can do fishing over there,” the O’s No. 5 prospect said. “Go out on the boat, bottle fish, you can troll for fish … They probably do that over here too,” he laughed. “I like to whip or just throw pole out there and hopefully something bites. On shore, you can dunk for fish too. 

It’s a truly special place for me,” he said. “It’s just beautiful.”

Though his father played baseball at the University of Hawaii, Aloy took his talents to Arkansas after a standout freshman season at Sacramento State. In his second year as a Razorback, the shortstop won the Golden Spikes award, given to the best player in the college game. 

Aloy didn’t follow in his father’s footsteps at Hawaii, but Dad remains a big part of the training routine. The lefty, a former 48th-round pick of the Giants in 1999, throws batting practice to his son in the offseason. 

“Yeah, he’s pretty good,” Wehiwa joked. “He has a lot of baseball experience.” 

Aloy’s focus in training, he said, was to take command of his strike zone. The book on the shortstop out of college noted his great power, especially for his position, but was also wary of some swing-and-miss. 

Dad had no problem giving him strikes to hit. 

When Aloy makes contact, though, the ball can fly. Through 23 games to begin 2026, the Arkansas product already has six home runs and boasts a slugging percentage of .543. A bigger bat could also be contributing to his ridiculous 1.757 OPS in the month of May. 

“I finally convinced him to swing a bat that everybody’s been trying to tell him to swing,” Irish joked. “And sure enough, he went 113, 114 home runs with it.” 

114 mph would be among the top-25 in Major League Baseball this season, for the record. 

“Well …,” Irish said with a sarcastic sigh. “He was still swinging a 33 and a half. And I was like ‘Wehiwa, you’re huge. Like, let’s swing a 34.’ And then sure enough, first game he swings it, he hits balls harder than anybody else. I’m not a hitting coach, I’m not a bat guy, but I might know a little something,” Irish joked. 

“Coming over here during draft camp, especially when we got drafted, just creating a closer bond with each other,” Aloy said of his teammates like Irish and R.J. Austin. “Bouncing off of how to get better at this game, and using each other as resources I would say. 

Competing with each other every day, whether that’s baseball or outside the field, they all have good work ethics so that’s huge too. It’s very fun to come out here every day with those guys,” Aloy added.

 

That 2025 draft class, headlined by Irish and Aloy, is already making waves in the O’s system. Though Aloy has Irish beat in the home run department through 23 games, Irish paces the pair with a .338 batting average and 1.055 OPS. Plus, second-round pitchers Joseph Dzierwa and J.T. Quinn look to be well on their way to a Double-A promotion sooner rather than later. 

Three of those four honed their skills in the SEC. But it’s Aloy who gets the bragging rights as the 2025 SEC Player of the Year. 

However iron may be sharpening iron, through friendly competition or bat advice, it’s resulting in wins. The High-A Frederick Keys are just two games out of the best record in the South Atlantic League. Talents like Aloy just may not be there for long.