With four of the top 37 selections and a record $19.1 million bonus pool to spend, the Orioles made perhaps the most impactful additions of any team Sunday night in a draft that will be one of executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias’ most important.
With those four picks, the Orioles acquired catcher/outfielder Ike Irish, catcher Caden Bodine, shortstop Wehiwa Aloy and outfielder Slater de Brun. Three more college hitters and no pitchers made Sunday’s first round a continuation of the organization’s draft strategy throughout the Elias era.
The Orioles acquired those three additional picks from losing major league players. Their pick at No. 19 was their own, and Nos. 30 and 31 were compensation for Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander leaving in free agency. No. 37 was the return for right-hander Bryan Baker from last week’s trade with the Rays. Baltimore made seven selections in total Sunday night, adding left-handed pitcher Joseph Dzierwa at No. 58 overall, right-handed pitcher JT Quinn at No. 69 and outfielder RJ Austin at No. 93.
But Irish, Bodine, Aloy and de Brun will headline Elias’ seventh and Matt Blood’s second draft — and hopefully become center pieces for the club’s depleted farm system for years to come. Here are 10 things to know about four of the newest Orioles:
Projections (and the Orioles) are split on Irish’s future position
The first sign that Irish’s best positional fit was a question mark was his description on the ESPN broadcast Sunday night. The network labeled the No. 19 pick an outfielder, while commissioner Rob Manfred announced Irish as a catcher.
Irish spent much of his final season at Auburn in the outfield, playing 41 games in right field and four in left field to just 12 games behind the plate. He opened the year as the Tigers’ starting catcher but fractured his scapula and played mostly outfield upon his return.
Unfortunately for the Michigan native, both positions are the organization’s deepest. At catcher, Irish has Adley Rutschman and Samuel Basallo in front of him. And four of Baltimore’s past five first-round picks have been outfielders.
Those same projections had Irish ranked much higher than where the Orioles got him
According to four publications that ranked draft prospects, Irish was a value for Baltimore at 19. Baseball America ranked the catcher as the 13th best player in the class. MLB Pipeline and ESPN had Irish 11th. The Athletic ranked him fifth.
Moving around the diamond never impacted his offensive production. Irish hit .364 with a 1.179 on-base-plus-slugging percentage and struck out in just 14.3% of his at-bats last year at Auburn. Despite defensive questions, the left-handed hitting catcher is more of a sure thing in the batter’s box.
“When I saw him in person, I walked away thinking ‘This guy is one of the best pure hitters in the draft and he’s not going to get to us,’” Blood said. “He can catch one day, he could play first one day, he could play in the outfield one day. That’s a pretty valuable type of player, especially if he’s one of the best hitters on the team.”
He played for a stacked high school team
Irish’s team, St. Mary’s Prep in Orchard Park, Michigan, dominated the area high school circuit. He played with two other top draft picks there: Brock Porter (2022 fourth round, Texas Rangers) and Alex Mooney (2023 seventh round, Cleveland Guardians). Their team won three consecutive state championships in Irish’s four seasons.
The 21-year-old Irish didn’t enjoy as much team success at Auburn but is now the school’s fifth-highest drafted player ever. He’s the Tigers’ first first-rounder since 2020 and first first-round position player since 2016. He could have shared the field with Gunnar Henderson, an Auburn signee who instead signed with the Orioles after being drafted out of high school. That day might now come in Baltimore.
Bodine has a knack for the postseason
Bodine, the Orioles’ second pick Sunday night, has led teams on deep postseason runs at every level.
The 21-year-old switch-hitting catcher starred for Coastal Carolina this spring and led the Chanticleers to the College World Series final. At Haddon Heights high school in New Jersey, he helped his team win a state championship his senior year, going 2-for-2 with a home run in the title game.
Bodine hit .318 with a .454 on-base percentage as a junior and became the school’s second ever first-round selection. And he boasts one of the draft’s best contact tools — he struck out in just 8% of his at-bats last season.
“He’s just a very polished player,” Blood said. “He was a high-level competitive wrestler when he was in high school, and you can see that athleticism and body control and just awareness using the ground when he’s catching. He’s one of the better receivers in the country. He’s a very accurate thrower. He’s just a very effective catcher.”
Baltimore wasn’t afraid to take two catchers
Despite having rich catching talent in the major leagues and the upper minors, adding two catchers with their first two selections was not a concern for the Orioles, Blood said. Irish’s bat was simply too impressive to ignore, and the club was impressed with Bodine’s defense enough to spend another pick at the position.
“He has the ability to catch, he has the ability to play corner outfield, he has the ability to play some first base, and we’re pretty big on defensive versatility,” Blood said on Irish. “We’ll probably explore all those options.”
Aloy was college baseball’s best player who took a modern path to the top
Aloy won the Golden Spikes Award this past season at Arkansas, college baseball’s version of the Heisman Trophy given to the sport’s top player. The 21-year-old did so after hitting .350 with a 1.107 OPS and 21 home runs in 65 games for the Razorbacks.
The 6-foot-2 Aloy’s path to becoming one of the nation’s top players is representative of the modern college athletics landscape. He was underrecruited out of Hawaii and played his freshman season at Sacramento State. After an impressive showing there, he entered the transfer portal and bounced to the Southeastern Conference to become one of the nation’s best players.
Baltimore did not expect him to fall to No. 31
Four picks and a record bonus pool gave the Orioles unique flexibility in the draft. Aloy is an example of a player they might not have been able to acquire without those extra assets, Blood said.
“He’s been a trend-up guy, he’s gotten better each year in college,” Blood said. “We really like the way he goes about playing the game and his skill set. So we see a lot of upside with him, and we did not expect him to get where we were able to draft him. We’re very excited to be able to get him.”
De Brun has a familiar background
The Pacific Northwest and Southeastern Conference are two places the Orioles have always found success in. De Brun, like Rutschman, is an Oregon native. And the 18-year-old is a Vanderbilt commit — 2023 first rounder Enrique Bradfield Jr. and interim manager Tony Mansolino both played there.
De Brun is an undersized outfielder with elite defensive skills that give scouts confidence he’ll be a true centerfielder. His 5-foot-10, 187-pound frame has drawn comparisons with Arizona Diamondbacks All-Star outfielder Corbin Carroll. Bradfield fit a similar mold as a draftee with plus speed and defense but questions about his bat.
De Brun is the only high schooler the Orioles chose on Day 1 of the 2025 draft, the type of player they have typically steered away from early in drafts.
He isn’t old enough to drink, but he can sing about it
The 18-year-old has passions that extend beyond the diamond.
He’s released five songs that he calls are a mix of country and pop, headlined by “Find Me a Bar,” which has over 10,000 streams on Spotify under the alias “Lil Slayyy.” He started experimenting with music in high school and taught himself how to produce from YouTube tutorials.
“He’s one of the more charismatic and likeable people you’ll ever meet,” Blood said. “He’s got a lot of energy. He’s great to be around. He works really, really hard. He’s very deliberate and diligent about everything that he does. Cares a lot, and so that’s a great place to start when you’re talking about an 18 year old kid.”
Four picks, three college hitters
Baltimore’s first-round picks fit the type of player Elias and Blood have often sought in first rounds. With Irish, five of the Orioles past six top picks are college hitters, and four of those five are left handed.
That philosophy has mostly worked. Each of the club’s first four first-round picks under Elias reached the majors. Bradfield is steadily improving in Double-A Chesapeake. And Blood said last week that he isn’t worried about Vance Honeycutt’s slow start to his first full professional season.
The Orioles continue to show they feel most confident developing college bats, although Dzierwa is the club’s highest drafted pitcher under Elias. They proved such again in 2025.
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