Despite a massive amount of hype following a strong showing in spring training and a dominant run in the minor leagues, the Baltimore Orioles found out that not every highly touted prospect will work and Jackson Holliday is heading back to the farm.
When talking about who could be the next big star in MLB, Orioles prospect Jackson Holliday was a name often thrown around by baseball analysts and talent evaluators — and with good reason. The first-overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft has looked the part of a future superstar since joining the pro ranks.
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Over his first two seasons in the Baltimore minor league system, the 20-year-old flew three five different levels and reached Triple-A toward the end of his sophomore season. Any time he hit a speed bump (in Single-A and Triple-A) he came back like a monster the next year. That was the case in 2024 when after a strong spring where he slashed .311/.354/.600 with the big club, he was asked to start the year at Triple-A.
In 10 Triple-A games, he hit .333 with a 1.077 OPS and 14 hits. That’s why it was unsurprisingly when the Baltimore Orioles decided to promote him earlier this month. Unfortunately, unlike other elite prospects who delivered when they got the call — like Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman — Holliday was a disaster in his first 10 games in the big leagues.
Baltimore Orioles’ Jackson Holliday experiment ends after 10 games
The top prospect not just in Baltimore’s system, but the player many considered the best in all of baseball, hit .059 with a stunning .170 OPS and 18 strikeouts in his 34 at-bats. Just like he earned his call to the show earlier this month, his horrid performance also incurred a demotion. On Friday, the team announced that they had optioned the star prospect back to Triple-A Norfolk.
While it is not a good look for Jackson Holliday, there have been other players who disappointed in their debuts and were demoted before returning to the big leagues to become legends — including New York Yankees icon Derek Jeter.
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Since the Baltimore Orioles are off to a strong start again in 2024, the move is the right one for the first-place club to avoid damaging the confidence of one of their top prospects. It would not be surprising if they held off on a second promotion until September.