Jackson Holliday’s no good, very bad season somehow just got worse

We're not breaking news by saying that it's been nothing like the year that Jackson Holliday would've hoped for.

The Baltimore Orioles and MLB's top prospect had high hopes of making the MLB roster out of spring training but failed to do so. That initial disappointment seemed to be quickly pushed to the side when he was called up for his big-league debut in early April. Unfortunately, that actually only made the bad vibes even worse as he struggled mightily in the majors.

Holliday played in only 10 games with the Orioles and never even came close to finding success, frankly. The 20-year-old went just 2-for-34 at the major-league level with 18 strikeouts and only two walks. That led to him being optioned back to Triple-A Norfolk before the end of April, where he's resided since.

But the struggles continued even in the minors as some of the same issues, namely his alarming whiff rate, persisted in Triple-A. However, he has shown some improvement there with 54 walks to go with 54 strikeouts in Triple-A. But even while hitting .270 in the minors this season, his dominance has dipped from prior to his big-league promotion.

Now there is even more bad news for Holliday in what has been a tumultuous year for baseball's top prospect.

Jackson Holliday hitting IL in Triple-A with elbow inflammation

On Friday, the Orioles announced that Jackson Holliday will be placed on the IL with what the team is calling right elbow inflammation.

If there's a silver lining here, it's that the injury is not considered serious and appears to be more precautionary than anything that should be kept an eye on for the rest of the year. And as Roch Kubatko of MASN noted, it could also give Holliday a break from his up-and-down season to potentially reset and get things back on his upward trajectory.

Again, this has been a bad year for Holliday. Even with the counting numbers he's put up at Triple-A this season, it's clear that there is work to do before he's truly ready for the big-league level. But at the same time, anyone who is writing off the top prospect should rethink their process.

Holliday is 20 years old and, while they were a bad 10 games with the Orioles, it was only 10 games. That is way too small of a sample size to make any kind of long-term assessment, especially for a player who was drafted at 18 years old just a couple years ago. And maybe this respite on the injured list will be just what he needs to start righting the ship.

This is ultimately a bad break for Holliday with the elbow issue. But at the end of the day, he's still the top prospect in Baltimore and a critical part of the future. And it'll take a lot more than a rollercoaster start to 2024 to change that in any meaningful way.