Orioles' Jackson Holliday dilemma is threatening to derail another top prospect

Jackson Holliday has been a source of consternation for the Baltimore Orioles and their fans for most of the last 12 months now. The No. 1 pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, Holliday tore through the Minors at an almost unprecedented rate, becoming a can't-miss prospect in the process. But his debut in the Majors was more or less an abject disaster: The infielder logged just two hits in his first 34 at-bats, and while things were slightly better after being promoted again later in the summer, he still finished with an ugly .189/.255/.311 slash line with 69 strikeouts in just 60 games.

All of which raised some difficult questions about the O's and their future? What had gone wrong? Did they rush Holliday to the Majors too quickly? Could they help him fix whatever was broken at the big-league level? And just how long of a leash should they give their second baseman of the future?

So far this spring, Holliday and the Orioles are confident that they've found the answers. And his stat line would certainly suggest so, with an .834 OPS through his first 13 games. But even amid all that optimism, the Holliday dilemma continues to haunt Baltimore, as it tries to navigate a tricky situation with another highly touted infield prospect.

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Orioles' treatment of Coby Mayo has everything to do with Jackson Holliday

Mayo might not be on Holliday's level as a prospect, but he's not all that far off, a former fourth-round pick back in 2020 who's bludgeoned the high Minors in each of the past two years and climbed all the way up to No. 14 on MLB Pipeline's preseason list.

But like Holliday, Mayo flopped in his first (very brief) taste of the Majors, hitting just .098/.196/.098 with a whopping 22 strikeouts over 17 games in Baltimore in 2024. Where Holliday got another chance, though, Mayo might not be so lucky: The O's sent him back to Minor League camp this week, unable to find a place for him on the MLB roster just yet. Mayo, for his part, wasn't thrilled.

"It definitely is difficult," he said of the news. "It obviously sucks because you feel like you've proven everything you've needed to. Sometimes it doesn't feel like it's quite enough."

You can't blame Mayo for feeling like he's earned a bit more than he's gotten. He has nothing left to prove at Triple-A, where he's hit .279/.376/.543 with 34 homers in 151 games across 2023 and 2024. And yet, his place in the Baltimore infield pecking order is more or less set in stone: Jordan Westburg is the third baseman, Gunnar Henderson is the shortstop, and there's Holliday at second base.

Baltimore is also likely wary of repeating the Holliday mistake from last year, hanging Mayo out to dry when he's not quite ready for the Majors. And its commitment to Holliday is creating a bit of a logjam, one that Mike Elias seems unwilling to resolve with a consolidation trade for a big name. As long as none of the above changes, more frustration lies ahead.