Jackson Holliday is back in the Orioles’ lineup, but the first stretch of his return has done little to quiet the questions around him.
After missing the first two months of the season, Holliday has been playing most days at second base and usually hitting near the bottom of the order. That’s a tough spot for any young hitter trying to settle in, and it’s worth remembering he missed all of spring training while coming back from an injury that has a reputation for affecting players even after they return.
Still, the early results haven’t been encouraging. And with this now his third season in Baltimore, the Orioles are getting closer to the point where they have to decide what kind of role he fits on a 2027 roster.
That doesn’t mean Holliday is an easy player to dismiss. In some ways, he remains exactly what made him such a big name in the first place: a young, advanced talent with a track record that still stands out when measured against players his age.
At 22, he is younger than the Orioles’ current No. 2 prospect and recent addition to the MLB top 100 list, Ike Irish. Irish is in High-A and hitting .265/.384/.462, which is a strong line for a former first-round pick in his first pro season.
Holliday, by comparison, hit .314/.452/.488 in High-A as a 19-year-old in 2023. If that same season had happened for a player drafted in 2025, he’d probably be viewed as a top-10 prospect in baseball.
That’s the tension with Holliday. He has already been around long enough that it can feel like he should be further along, but age-wise he is still ahead of most of his peers.
Only 12 players in the majors are younger than him. The problem is that when he arrived as the No. 1 prospect, the expectation wasn’t that he’d need years to figure things out.
He was supposed to be an immediate difference-maker, and that hasn’t happened.
So what needs to change before the Orioles stop believing in him? Two things stand out.
First, Holliday has to sharpen his plate discipline. He came up with the reputation of a 70-grade hit tool, but that label looks a little too optimistic now.
There’s more swing-and-miss in his game than people expected, and it’s possible his best offensive path is going to come more from power than from batting average. If that’s the case, fine - but then the on-base production still has to be there.
A career .298 OBP doesn’t clear the bar, and even last year’s .314 mark wasn’t enough. By the end of the season, the Orioles need to see him getting on base at a level that looks viable no matter what the rest of the slash line says.
The second area is turning his athleticism into actual value on the bases and in the field. Holliday can run and he moves well, but that hasn’t consistently shown up in his defensive range, and he has also been a negative on the base paths.
Those extra skills matter for a young player trying to stay in the majors while the bat catches up. Holliday’s offense alone won’t carry him.
If he can start making his speed show up on defense and on the bases, it would go a long way toward keeping him in Baltimore’s 2027 plans.
In Other News...
Orioles May Have Learned Something Concerning About Trey Gibson
Trey Gibsons first look in the big leagues gave the Orioles a reminder that pitching prospects rarely arrive with a straight line from the minors to Camden Yards. Promoted because of injuries in the rotation, the right-hander flashed the kind of arm that made him one of Baltimores better young pitchers, but the results also showed how quickly the margin shrinks against major league hitters when command slips.
What makes Gibson worth watching is that the stuff has not disappeared, and his Double-A success earlier this season suggested a pitcher who could miss bats and limit damage when everything was synced up. The concern now is less about whether he belongs in the organizations future plans and more about how long it will take for his command to catch up, because that will determine whether he is just depth for now or someone who can truly push for a rotation job down the road. [Read more 🡒]
Astros Could Force Orioles Fans To Rethink The Trade Deadline
The Astros surge back into the American League West and wild-card picture has changed the tone around their deadline plans, turning a club that looked like a likely seller into one that may be shopping for help instead. For Baltimore fans, that matters because Houstons new posture could put the Orioles on the other side of the market, with Bleacher Reports Kerry Miller pointing to a pair of Baltimore players as possible fits if the Astros decide to buy.
One of those names would make sense for a Houston team looking to add offense, even if the power production has not matched last years pace. The other has been working through a rocky overall line, but a strong June suggested there may still be more upside there than the season-long numbers show, which is exactly the kind of profile a contender can talk itself into when the deadline starts to tighten up. [Read more 🡒]