The Orioles have reached one of those uncomfortable late-season crossroads that teams spend all summer trying to avoid: a top prospect is scuffling, a useful veteran piece is back, and the games suddenly matter a whole lot more.
Jackson Holliday’s name sits right in the middle of it.
Nobody around Baltimore has been shy about wanting the Orioles to let their young core play. Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson went through their own versions of that wait-and-see period in Norfolk, and the same complaints have swirled around Jordan Westburg, Heston Kjerstad, Coby Mayo, Dylan Beavers, and Samuel Basallo.
Holliday has taken more scrutiny than any of them. He was the first overall pick, he’s 22, and the case for keeping him in the lineup is obvious: he needs reps, especially at second base, and he needs to work through the rough patches.
The problem is that the Orioles are still in the race. At 69-70 on September 2, they’re 1.5 games behind Cleveland, tied with Texas, a game ahead of Toronto, and two up on Minnesota in the AL Wild Card chase.
In a different league setup, they’d be staring at a much flatter reality. Instead, they’re still very much in the mix.
Holliday’s recent production, though, has been hard to ignore. Since August 1, he’s hit .202/.242/.310, which works out to a 50 wRC+.
He’s walked in just 5% of his 121 plate appearances and struck out 22% of the time. Those 121 plate appearances are second-most on the team over that stretch, behind only Pete Alonso, who was on a generational heater for most of the month.
The Orioles have already done what fans have been asking for. They’ve played him.
They’ve kept running him out there. They’ve let him try to find it at the major league level.
And then there’s the defense.
Tuesday night in Colorado was a perfect snapshot of the whole Jackson Holliday package right now. He tied the game with a home run in the seventh inning, then dropped a popup in the eighth that helped the Rockies reclaim the lead. The Orioles lost 4-2.
That loss wasn’t on him alone. It wasn’t all on Luis De Leon either, who made his MLB debut in the seventh inning of a tied game only to get hung out to dry on that pop-up.
It also wasn’t on Craig Albernaz, who had told reporters just hours earlier that he wouldn’t put the rookie southpaw in that kind of spot. And Baltimore didn’t do nearly enough offensively against a Rockies pitching staff that kept sending out 5+ ERA arms.
The Orioles scored only four runs in 18 innings at Coors Field, and that has to be part of the conversation.
Still, Holliday’s recent stretch has made him more of an issue than a fix.
That’s what makes Blaze Alexander’s return so complicated. Before a broken hand knocked him out in July, Alexander had turned himself from “that guy we got from Arizona” into one of the season’s best surprises. He’s hitting .303/.359/.423 overall, and Baltimore missed him badly while he was sidelined.
A clean platoon doesn’t solve it, though. Alexander has crushed right-handed pitching, hitting .322/.384/.470 with a 145 wRC+.
Against lefties, he’s at .271/.315/.341, good for an 84 wRC+. In other words, the right-handed hitter has been much better against righties, which is the sort of split that makes the usual handedness logic wobble.
Baseball does that sometimes.
That leaves the Orioles with a real decision as September tightens up and the schedule gets more demanding. Every game matters now.
Every plate appearance matters. Every popup matters, especially the ones that should be caught.
Nobody is suggesting Holliday should be buried on the bench. He remains one of the organization’s most important players, and the Orioles still need him to figure it out.
There are signs he can turn it on, too. From July 20 to 31, he bumped his batting average from .205 to .261 with 15 hits in 30 at-bats.
Then came the ugly August stretch.
So the question isn’t whether the Orioles believe in Jackson Holliday. They do. The question is how much playing time can still be handed out based on pedigree and long-term upside when the current lineup has a black hole in it and the postseason race is hanging there.
Blaze Alexander can move around the diamond and find at-bats in different spots. Holliday is still the second baseman trying to prove he can carry his end of the load right now.
And that’s the conundrum.
In Other News...
Orioles Already Sent A Clear Message With Luis De Lens Debut
Luis De Lens major league debut came in relief against the Rockies, and even in a brief one-inning look, the Orioles got a small snapshot of why they brought him up. He struck out one batter, showed the kind of arm that can miss bats at this level, and also learned immediately how quickly the margins tighten in the big leagues when a two-run homer changes the shape of an outing.
Craig Albernaz and De Lens teammates still came away talking about his potential future role, which is often the real point of these first appearances for a young pitcher. For Baltimore, the debut was less about one line on a scorecard than about sending a message that De Len is in the conversation now, with the next step depending on how the Orioles decide to use and develop him from here. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Are Pulling Off A Trade Deadline Balancing Act
The Orioles spent the trade deadline walking a line that few clubs are willing to try this late in a season, moving notable pieces while still keeping one eye on the playoff race. Baltimore dealt away key players including Adley Rutschman, Taylor Ward and Tyler Wells, then brought back a wave of prospects, a haul that signaled a clear bet on the future without fully shutting the door on the present.
Even with the sell-off, the Orioles were still hanging around the wild card picture in early September, which is what makes the deadline such a balancing act. The Athletics report handed Baltimore an A grade for the moves, pointing to both the clubs continued contention and the promise in the prospects it added, leaving the bigger question for the weeks ahead: whether the front offices mix of short-term competitiveness and long-term planning can pay off on both fronts. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Just Took Another Costly Hit From A Familiar Problem
Craig Albernazs latest lineup and bullpen choices added another layer of frustration to a Orioles season already defined by close calls and missed chances. In Colorado, Baltimore dropped a 4-2 decision to the Rockies, a result that nudged the club further back in the Wild Card race and put more attention on a night when Kyle Bradish again looked like a pitcher still working through the effects of past injuries.
The game also brought a couple of eyebrow-raising decisions that will be discussed long after the final out. Luis DeLeon was asked to make his MLB debut in the middle of a tense spot, and the Orioles were without Luis Robert Jr. despite acquiring him earlier, while Coby Mayo was also left out of the lineup. For a team trying to keep pace in a crowded race, those choices only sharpened the sense that Baltimore is still searching for the right formula. [Read more 🡒]