Kodi Medeiros can finally begin his professional career.
The 12th overall pick of the 2014 MLB draft signed a contract with the Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday morning, guaranteeing the Waiakea High alumnus a $2.5 million signing bonus, the Star-Advertiser has confirmed.
Medeiros also gets an addition $240,000 for four years of college at Pepperdine, where he signed last fall but will not attend after the Brewers made him the highest draft pick ever selected from Hawaii without going to college.
Medeiros sealed the deal with the Brewers with a pre-draft workout in which he touched 97 miles per hour multiple times on the gun.
His signing bonus is the second-most by a drafted player from Hawaii, trailing only the $2,950,000 that Punahou and Stanford alum Justin Wayne got as the fifth overall pick in the 2000 draft from the Montreal Expos.
After spending 19 days on the mainland, Medeiros is expected to return home to the Big Island with his family on Sunday and will have a week to relax before reporting to Arizona to begin his professional career.
Medeiros is the seventh first-round draft pick from Hawaii and the second in the last four years from the Big Island. Kamehameha-Hawaii alumnus Kolten Wong received a $1.3 million signing bonus as the No. 22 overall pick in the 2011 draft by the St. Louis Cardinals.
Milwaukee also drafted recent Saint Louis high graduate Jordan Yamamoto in the 12th round. Yamamoto, who has signed with Arizona, said no decision has been made yet whether he will sign with the Brewers or go to college.
Our aloha and congratulations to Kodi and the Medeiros family of the Big Island, on Kodi’s signing with the Milwaukee Brewers! It is great to see talent come from the Island of Hawaii, and his bonus of $2.5 million is fantastic, to say the least! We hope that Kodi takes care of his rotator cuff and develops other good pitches, like sliders and curve balls, too. He may become an “instant star” like Tanaka of the NY Yankees, but Tanaka is already having rotator cuff problems early in his career. Good luck to your son in the Majors!