Hoopii-Tuionetoa
After one junior college season, Hoopii-Tuionetoa was drafted again, this time signing with the Rangers in the 30th round.
He sat out the 2019 season after he signed with the Rangers to correct some minor wear on his arm. The 2020 minor league season was wiped out by the pandemic, and in 2021 he pitched in the Arizona Complex League at the Rookie level.
Then came last season’s breakout year as he continued to climb in the organization.
He is set to report to spring training later this month — he’s still waiting for his exact itinerary — and the 6-foot-2, 190-pound right-hander is still just 22 years old.
Now he feels he has found his niche as a reliever.
“I think so, I think that the roles that I’ve been put in and the situations that I’ve been put in, that played a big factor towards this past season,” he said. “So, I think I’ve figured it out and started to be smarter in certain situations and I think that helped me be comfortable with being a reliever.”
Certainly, Hoopii-Tuionetoa has become a student of the game.
“Coming in with runners on first and second, second and third, with two outs, I feel like I’m getting more comfortable in that spot,” he said.
His confidence is building, season by season, even day by day in the offseason as he works out at home on the Valley Isle. He doesn’t let much shake him anymore — the shy 17-year-old drafted out of high school has grown into a confident young man.
“I try to stay level, I don’t get too high going into training camp and everything, but I do feel good about it,” he said. “Last year, playing at that high level, starting to figure it out, I think going into this season I definitely feel a lot more comfortable and more, like, ready I would say compared to last year where it was just kind of a gray area … where am I going to play, this and that.
“It has definitely helped me be more ready compared to just being really confident.”
It was a conversation with his father Siiva Tuionetoa before his senior year in high school where things drastically changed for Bubba.
He had just returned from a second straight trip to the Senior League World Series when his dad told him it might be a good idea to start taking the game that he exceled at more seriously.
Now, the path he has traveled “I think it has definitely helped me open up to meet new people … compared to, like, being scared to showcase myself and put myself out there on the baseball field. When I was playing in Hawaii for so long, I believe I did the right thing — I will take that to my grave. I feel like, with everything that happened, and where I’m at now, it has definitely helped and made me a better person and better baseball player.”
He says the 22-year-old Bubba, compared to the high schooler five years ago, “I don’t think is much (different), but baseball-wise, I guess you could say smarter, work harder, don’t be lazy like how I used to be. I didn’t want to go in the weight room, I didn’t want to practice, I didn’t want to do any of that. Compared to now, now I know what is the big picture, chasing a dream, actually I’m in it.”
Robert Collias is at rcollias@maui news.com