Jackson Holliday was, not too long ago, considered by most outlets to be the best prospect in MLB. Unfortunately, his prospect status hasn't translated into MLB quite yet, as he had an extremely rocky rookie year and while he's been better to start 2025, his .680 OPS isn't exactly something to write home about. The St. Louis Cardinals might be entering Jackson Holliday territory with Jordan Walker.
Walker was once one of MLB's top prospects, but he, like Holliday, has had a shaky start to his MLB career. He had trouble sticking at the MLB level in 2023 and 2024, and this season, is slashing .210/.269/.290 with two home runs and nine RBI in 27 games thus far.
Walker's struggles have the Cardinals in a similar spot to the Baltimore Orioles with Holliday.
Cardinals have their own Jackson Holliday problem brewing with Jordan Walker
There's a balance to strike. Both Walker and Holliday have demolished minor league pitching for the most part, and both were considered top prospects. They've been given chances to play regularly at the MLB level but haven't produced. With that in mind, do these teams continue giving these players chances just because they were once top prospects, or do they prioritize giving playing time to players actually producing?
With the Cardinals, Walker will likely have the entire season, at least, to prove himself at the MLB level. John Mozeliak made it abundantly clear entering the 2025 campaign that this year was going to be a "retool year" to an extent. Instead of focusing solely on winning the World Series, the No. 1 priority was going to be giving playing time to younger players to see what they had internally. Walker was a player certainly on Mozeliak's mind when the team shifted its focus toward retooling.
With the Orioles, it's a bit more up in the air. The Orioles are trying to win now, but have struggled out of the gate. Holliday isn't the only reason for that, but his subpar hitting hasn't exactly helped them. With fellow top infield prospect Coby Mayo thriving at Triple-A to start the year, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Orioles make a switch at some point to try and give themselves a spark.
At the end of the day, these players might have been former top prospects and might still be young, but their teams are going to run out of patience at some point. Their prospect status and ages are undoubtedly what's buying them more time, but they're going to have to produce sooner rather than later to justify giving them regular reps at the MLB level.