The Orioles are calling up Jackson Holliday, studies Jeff Passan of ESPN (X hyperlink). The game’s high prospect will step into Baltimore’s infield a pair weeks into the season.
Holliday, the #1 total decide in 2022, has destroyed minor league pitching. Regardless of being a highschool draftee, he reaches the majors after only a yr and a half within the minor leagues. The lefty-hitting infielder traversed 4 minor league ranges in his first full skilled season. Holliday raked at a .323/.442/.499 clip over 581 plate appearances final season. He spent nearly all of that point between Excessive-A and Double-A however made it to the highest minor league degree late within the yr.
That meteoric rise made it appear that the Oklahoma native had an actual probability to interrupt camp. That didn’t occur, as Baltimore reassigned Holliday again to Triple-A Norfolk late in Spring Coaching. The 20-year-old has opened the yr on a tear as a part of a loaded Tides lineup. He’d collected 13 hits (together with 4 doubles and a pair of house runs) with 11 walks and eight strikeouts over his first 9 video games.
The son of seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday, Jackson owns a superb .321/.452/.497 batting line via 154 minor league video games. Along with his stellar offensive observe document, he gives loads of defensive worth as an above-average or higher center infielder. Holliday has primarily performed shortstop within the minor leagues, however the O’s used him largely at second base in camp. Seven of his 9 begins in Norfolk this yr have come on the keystone, the place he appears prone to break into the large leagues.
Holliday’s well-rounded profile has made him an primarily unanimous alternative as the sport’s finest minor league expertise. It’s the third straight season through which the O’s entered the yr with a participant whom most evaluators contemplate the game’s high prospect. Holliday will now be part of Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson and lots extra proficient younger gamers at Camden Yards. He ought to pair with Henderson in what has the prospect to be a franchise-defining center infield.
Baltimore has relied on Jordan Westburg — himself a former first-round decide and highly-regarded prospect — as their main second baseman within the early going. The Mississippi State product has began slowly, hitting .195/.242/.355 via his first 9 video games. Westburg may slide over to 3rd base if the O’s need to maintain him within the on a regular basis lineup. Ramón Urías and Tony Kemp, every of whom is on the roster as a multi-positional infielder, have began the season slowly (albeit in exceedingly small samples). Westburg nonetheless has choices remaining and will theoretically be despatched again to Norfolk; the Orioles would wish to designate Urias or Kemp for task to take both participant off the large league membership.
Extra to come back.