Jackson Holliday steals Orioles regular's job, immediately gains another fan

Jackson Holliday's MLB debut couldn't come a minute too early for Orioles fans, and frankly they didn't care who got in the way. While Holliday technically didn't take anyone's job, as a roster move was made before he was called up to the majors, the player who was DFA'd just prior to his arrival is rooting for the top prospect in baseball to succeed.

Tony Kemp was DFA'd by the Orioles on Wednesday. In doing so, they made room on the roster to promote Holliday, who was unsurprisingly raking at Triple-A, just as he has been since last season. In fact, one could make a pretty good argument that Holliday should've made the Orioles Opening Day roster.

Kemp had moderate success with the Oakland Athletics from 2020-22, as MLB Trade Rumors Steve Adams details:

"The now-32-year-old Kemp was a solid contributor with the A’s. He split time between second base and left field, turning in a .252/.341/.361 slash (105 wRC+). Kemp lacks power but has superlative contact skills and keen plate discipline, evidenced by 12.5% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate during that three-year stretch (and by his career 10.1% walk rate and 13.3% strikeout rate)."

Jackson Holliday has a fan in former Orioles player Tony Kemp

Unfortunately for Kemp, he was not able to carry over that success to Baltimore. In 2023, his final year with the Athletics, Kemp slashed just .209/.303/.304. Despite a decent spring training with the Orioles in which he made the MLB roster, Kemp didn't show enough in his brief O's cameo to earn a long-term spot over the likes of Holliday.

Kemp remains a fan of Holliday, as he has connections to the family. Before Jackson's MLB debut, Kemp tweeted out his support:

"In the fall of 2010, our college had a series against the Longhorns for a 3 game set. Our hitting coach at the time was Josh Holliday and his brother, Matt, brought his kid to our early practice. I remember watching his son Jackson with a sweet lefty swing. Go get em’ kid!" Kemp said.

Holliday is so likable early in his big-league career, even the vet whose job he stole is on the bandwagon.