Jackson Holliday’s tumultuous 2024 tangibly now hurting his stock

Coming into the season, Baltimore Orioles prospect Jackson Holliday was the unanimous top prospect in all of baseball. The 20-year-old phenom was projected to blast his way through Triple-A, again, before landing with the big-league club early in the season and sticking there as the shortstop of the future. The sky was the limit and every media outlet agreed, unanimously naming him baseball's top prospect.

While he's stayed in the top spot for MLB Pipeline, Baseball America consistently bumped him down to the second spot, after Holliday struggled in his first stint in the big leagues. First, it was when the Pirates' flamethrower Paul Skenes was dominating minor league hitters. Skenes took the top spot until he was elevated to the big leagues and outgrew his prospect status.

Skenes proved Baseball America right as he has absolutely dominated in his short, big-league career. The Pirates righty deserved the top spot and that's no knock on Holliday.

Now, James Wood of the Nationals has overtaken Holliday for the top spot on Baseball America's rankings.

Nationals prospect James Wood surpasses Jackson Holliday in prospect rankings

Geoff Pontes of Baseball America gave this update, explaining their reasoning behind moving Holliday down a spot in the rankings.

"And now that Skenes has graduated, Nationals outfielder James Wood has moved to No. 1. Holliday, who sat at No. 2 when Skenes was bumped up, remains second overall. As we said when Skenes ascended to No. 1, this isn’t a repudiation of Holliday as a prospect. It’s a recognition of just how impressive Wood has become."

Though Pontes states that this has less to do with Holliday's struggles and more to do with Wood's success, it's hard to believe that's fully the case.

It's fairly likely that Jackson Holliday would still sit atop the rankings if he was still slashing .323/.442/.499 like he was last season in the minor leagues. Or if Holliday had a successful stint in the big leagues. Holliday may still sit atop the rankings if he hadn't made the big leagues at all, saving the media from watching him struggle so mightily.

Obviously these rankings are meaningless in the grand scheme of things. No rankings will affect the way that Holliday's, Wood's or Skenes' career will go. But it is interesting to look at the way such a well-respected baseball outlet views Holliday compared to last season.