When the Baltimore Orioles called up top prospect Jackson Holliday for his April 10 debut, it looked like the beginning of the career of yet another young Orioles stud. But after a disappointing first experience in the majors, the No. 1 prospect was finally put out of his misery and sent back to the minor leagues.
Unfortunately, things haven't gone as well there in the early going either.
After the success of Adley Rutchsman and Gunnar Henderson, most observers just assumed that Holliday would slide right in to take his rightful place in the getting-younger-by-the-day Baltimore lineup. After all, Holliday, the son of former big-leaguer Matt Holliday, was a bigger name than any of the other Orioles' prospects. What could go wrong?
With the eyes of the entire baseball world on him, Holliday made his debut and promptly fell flat on his face, going hitless through his first three games and finishing his initial MLB stint with two hits and a 50 percent strikeout rate in 36 plate appearances.
Jackson Holliday's struggles may have followed him back to the minor leagues
That's a lot of pressure for a 20-year-old, and the Orioles realized it wasn't going to get better anytime soon. On April 26, the team optioned him back down to Triple-A Norfolk. There, he could get out of the spotlight and rediscover his game.
Or so they thought.
The first-overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft hasn't had any problems against minor league pitchers before the call-up. In his 10 games for the Tides, he hit .333 with a 1.077 OPS, striking out only 13.8 percent of the time.
Holliday's second go-round in Triple-A hasn't started off the way he or the organization had likely hoped, or anticipated. On Saturday, in his first game back in a Tides uniform, he went 0-for-4 with a walk and strikeout. He managed a hit on Sunday, a double, but sits 1-for-8 through the two contests.
Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias doesn't sound concerned about Holliday.
"This is a very exciting talent, not just for the Orioles but for the sport," Elias said recently on MLB Network's High Heat. "For now, he's going back to Triple-A to make some adjustments based on the feedback that he, and we, got with him at the major league level. But long-term this is an enormous part of our future and we also think he's going to be an enormous part of the 2023 Orioles."
While the slow restart in Norfolk is somewhat alarming, there's still plenty of time for Holliday to find himself again. He's young, the season is young, and the 18-10 Orioles don't need to rush him.