The Orioles announced today that they have optioned infielder Jackson Holliday to Triple-A Norfolk. His roster spot will go to outfielder Ryan McKenna, whose contract has been selected. To open a spot on the 40-man for McKenna, catcher David Bañuelos has been designated for assignment.
Holliday, 20, came into this season as the consensus top prospect in baseball. The first overall pick of the 2022 draft, he mashed his way through four levels of the minor leagues last year. He went from Single-A to High-A to Double-A and Triple-A, hitting .323/.442/.499 along the way.
Coming into 2024, there seemed to be a legitimate chance of Holliday cracking the Opening Day roster, despite his young age. Back in December, general manager Mike Elias said as much, telling reporters that it was a “very strong possibility.”
During Spring Training, Holliday seemed to be ticking all the boxes when he hit .311/.354/.600 in official Grapefruit League action. Yet despite that huge stat line, the club decided to send him back to Triple-A to start the year. Elias stated that Holliday needed a bit more work against left-handed pitching and a bit more experience at second base, having only recently moved there from shortstop.
Some observers wondered if this was simple service time manipulation, but the O’s made another surprising move when they called Holliday up on April 9, less than two weeks into the season. He had only played 10 Triple-A games to start the year, hitting a huge .333/.482/.595 in that time, and he was still called up early enough that he could earn a full year of service time by staying up for the remainder of the 2024 season.
Unfortunately, his major league career has gotten out to an incredibly slow start. Through 10 games and 36 plate appearances, he has struck out 18 times, a massive 50% clip. He only has two hits, both singles, and two walks. That leads to a batting line of .059/.111/.059.
More to come.