Maya Brady is selected No. 1 overall in pro softball expansion draft
Former UCLA star Maya Brady was selected first overall by the Oklahoma City Spark in this week’s Athletes Unlimited Softball League expansion draft.
That’s 18 spots higher than she was selected by the Talons in the league’s inaugural sophomore draft in January — and 198 spots higher than her uncle was selected by the New England Patriots in the 2000 NFL Draft.
Tom Brady has won seven Super Bowls (six with the Patriots, one with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and three league MVP awards, holds several major NFL passing records, and is considered by many to be one of the greatest football players of all time.
Maya Brady has a long way to go before reaching the same status in softball, but she’s been making a name for herself for a long time. His mother, Maureen Brady (Tom’s older sister), was 111-10 as a pitcher at San Mateo Hillsdale High from 1988 to 1991 and became an All-American at Fresno State.
Playing softball since the age of 4, Maya Brady joined the prestigious Orange County Batbusters club program when she was 10 years old. She became a star shortstop at Oaks Christian High, where she was a two-time Marmonte League MVP and helped the Lions win three league titles.
Brady, who committed to UCLA as a high school freshman, began her career with the Bruins in 2020 and led the defending national champions with seven home runs that spring before the rest of the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After Brady hit his first home run of the following season, his NFL legend uncle declared on social media that his softball star niece was “the most dominant athlete in the Brady family…by far!” »
Brady led the Pac-12 with a .456 batting average in 2023 and was named the conference’s player of the year that season and in 2024. After four-plus seasons with the Bruins, the shortstop/outfielder ranks second in team history in home runs (71), RBIs (246), total bases (550) and slugging percentage (.757). She is also fourth all-time in runs scored (229) and 10th in batting average (.384).
In January, Brady was a fifth-round pick (19th overall) for the Talons, one of four teams in the AUSL’s inaugural season. The Talons’ general manager is Olympic medalist Lisa Fernandez, who has been a member of the UCLA coaching staff since 2017.
Hampered by a hamstring injury for much of the season, Brady made the most of her 22 at-bats with the Talons, hitting .500 and reaching base in her first 10 plate appearances (seven hits, three walks). She also plays for the Toyota Red Terriers of the Japan Diamond Softball League.
The Oklahoma City Spark debuted in 2023 as part of the women’s professional fastpitch league and will join the AUSL as one of two expansion teams in 2026. Although the team’s front office and staff remain in place, its roster is starting from scratch starting with Monday’s expansion draft.
The four original AUSL teams managed to protect five players from their roster at the start of the draft. Brady will be reunited with general manager Kirk Walker, who was also a member of the Bruins coaching staff during his college years.
In May, Major League Baseball announced “a strategic investment” in the AUSL. Kim Ng, commissioner of the softball league, was previously MLB’s senior vice president of baseball operations and the first female general manager of a major American men’s professional sports team (Miami Marlins). She served as assistant general manager of the Dodgers from 2002 to 2011.
