There was a lot of buzz surrounding the Baltimore Orioles this offseason and heading into the start of the year.
Much of that had to do with their winter acquisition of 2021 NL Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes to put at the top of their rotation alongside Kyle Bradish and Grayson Rodriguez. But the other attention grabber was how loaded their farm system continues to be.
With former No. 1 overall prospects Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson taking Major League Baseball by storm, the expectation was that the current top guy, Jackson Holliday, would do the same.
He got his opportunity when called up on April 10, but things did not go as planned.
The 20-year-old got two hits out of his 34 at-bats and struck out 18 times.
The Orioles ultimately decided that he wasn’t quite ready to face MLB competition and sent him back down to Triple-A where he started out the year.
But, without all the attention and fervor surrounding Holliday like before, it’s been quiet about how he’s done down in the minors since his demotion.
So, how is he doing?
In 11 games he has gone 11-39 with a homer, five extra-base hits, four RBI, and a staggering number of 15 walks compared to nine strikeouts.
Prior to his call up, Holliday had a slash line of .333/.482/.595.
That has decreased a bit to .309/.482/.531, but it’s a great sign that he hit his first home run since getting optioned and has increased his walk rate compared to strikeouts.
How long he stays down in the minors before getting the call back to Baltimore is unknown, but general manager Mike Elias was pretty clear with their assessment of what they saw following his first tenure that ended in a demotion.
“He needs repetitions … We felt Triple-A and steady playing time in Triple-A was the place for that,” he said according to Joe Trezza of MLB.com.
He’ll certainly get that for as long as he’s with their Triple-A affiliate.
