Baltimore Orioles infielder Jackson Holliday is a star on the rise, but he still has some work to do. This is an important spring for Holliday as he looks to take the next step in his development. Unlike last season, there is little buzz about whether or not Holliday will make the Opening Day roster. Barring an unforeseen collapse, Holliday should play a critical role in the Orioles success this season, even if he starts the year in a reserve spot.
Like most players in his position, Holliday spent the offseason searching for inspiration. While the Holliday camp essentially has a compound they spend most of their offseasons at, Jackson prioritized adding weight and specifically muscle. He wants to increase his power output while not sacrificing the roster flexibility that makes him such an attractive asset to this Orioles team.
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Jackson Holliday studies the wrong former Orioles infielder
Holliday also studied tape of veteran players like Kolten Wong and Andres Gimenez. The latter makes a lot of sense, as Gimenez is one of the better infielders in the sport. Wong, though, is a bit of a head-scratcher given he didn't even make the O's roster last season. Matt Reywich of the Baltimore Sun had the story:
"First, he pulled up clips of two-time Gold Glove Award winner Kolten Wong, who was his teammate during spring training last year. Wong never broke camp with the Orioles but he did make an impression on Holliday, showing him some of the finer points of the position," Weyrich wrote.
Jackson Holliday looks to improve defensively for Orioles
One can only hope that tape was from Wong's gold glove seasons, rather than lately. Wong last won a gold glove in 2020 with the St. Louis Cardinals. Since then, he has bounced around quite a bit, including spending time with the Brewers and Orioles. This is nothing against Wong per say – he still deserves an MLB roster spot somewhere – but the O's sure hope Holliday proves to be a bit better in the grand scheme of things.
“I think just being crisp and sharp,” Holliday said. “I know me, personally, it’s being clean and direct so that’s kind of something I’ve been working on. And, obviously, just being as fast as possible on double play feeds, just trying to get the ball to [shortstop] Gunnar [Henderson] as quick as possible and let him do his thing. That’s been a point of emphasis so far, and it’s continuing to work like that.”
Holliday hopes to improve his defense at second base and win the starting job out of camp. That is well within his reach, and helps the Orioles given Gunnar Henderson is (hopefully) their long-term shortstop.