Jackson Holliday is the best prospect in baseball and his arrival in Baltimore was highly anticipated. When the Orioles finally called him up to the big leagues on April 10, the baseball world was paying attention. The long-awaited dream debut has not yet arrived. The 20-year-old’s first week-plus in the majors has felt more like a nightmare.
Holliday went 0-for-2 with a strikeout in Baltimore’s 9-4 loss to the Kansas City Royals on Friday night. This dropped his batting average to .037. This is not a typo. He has a lot of trouble at the plate.
After eight games, Holliday’s on-base percentage is now .071 and he is hitting .037. That’s an OPS of .108. He currently has one hit (one single) in 27 at-bats. He scored four runs, an RBI and a walk. To make matters worse, he struck out 15 of his 27 at-bats. Things got so bad that on Friday night the Orioles struck out in the seventh inning with the bases loaded and no outs. To add insult to injury, Ramon Urias, who is hitting .192 with a dismal .415 OPS, was the man chosen to take his place. Urias committed a harmless foul against the receiver.
One positive: Holliday has yet to make an error in the field at second base. That said, his dWAR is -0.1.
Holliday is incredibly young to be on an MLB roster, so an adjustment period probably should have been expected. Considering his performance in the minor leagues and spring training, this complete failure thus far is still a bit sobering.
In 15 spring training games this year, Holliday slashed .311/.354/.600 while hitting two home runs and driving in six runs. He struck out 15 times in 45 at-bats, but his .954 OPS made it worth it.
In 2023, the former No. 1 overall pick went through four levels of the minors, reaching Triple-A at season’s end. He finished the campaign with a combined OPS of .941, slashing .323/.442/.499 with 12 home runs, 75 RBIs, 30 doubles and nine triples in 125 games. He walked 101 times while striking out 118 times, which is a fantastic ratio and a far cry from what we’ve seen in his MLB at-bats.
Holliday opened the season at Triple-A Norfolk and, once again, looked fantastic. In 10 games, he posted an OPS of 1.077 while slashing .333/.482/.595. He walked 12 times and struck out eight. He was on a roll and it’s surprising he couldn’t continue that momentum in the majors.
It’s worth nothing that current Orioles stars Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman have struggled to make it to the big leagues. As RJ Anderson pointed out, Rutschman slashed .210/.296/.389 in his first 176 plate appearances, while Henderson hit .224/.339/.394 in his first 289. Now, the two look like future MVP contenders.
Even though this crisis is brutal, a breakthrough is almost certainly coming for Holliday. He is far too talented to stay down for long. There’s no reason to believe he won’t wake up from this nightmarish beginning soon.
News Source : www.si.com
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