Orioles should take notes from Padres for their Jackson Holliday approach

Jackson Holliday remains the top prospect in baseball, even after his brief and ultimately ill-fated stint in the majors earlier this season with the Baltimore Orioles. And after some ups and downs upon returning to Triple-A this season and an injury that hampered him some, he's back at second base and has returned to dominating minor-league competition.

Orioles GM Mike Elias has already said that Holliday should play a factor for the big-league club in the second half of the regular season and possibly the playoffs. However, with Baltimore also expected to be one of the more aggressive buyers at the forthcoming July 30 trade deadline, there have been some fans who are ready to deal Holliday in exchange for the right superstar trade target.

However, if the Orioles are about smart business, then they should instead be looking to take a page out of the San Diego Padres' playbook based on the latest intel around the Friars, another expected trade deadline buyer, and their approach with their own top prospect, Ethan Salas.

Orioles approach with Jackson Holliday should mirror Padres' with Ethan Salas

Salas, the No. 6 overall prospect in baseball and the top-ranked catching prospect, would help the Padres, who are expected to be aggressive yet again under A.J. Preller, land almost any player they would want at the trade deadline. However, San Diego will make that happen in other ways according to USA Today MLB insider Bob Nightengale.

"The San Diego Padres are aggressively looking for help, but are telling teams that prized catching prospect Ethan Salas is untouchable," Nightengale wrote.

The Orioles should absolutely be using that model as the blueprint when it comes to Holliday. Yes, it's easy to look at his 10 major-league games earlier this season and his .059 batting average and .170 OPS and think that he might be overvalued. That's not the truth of the situation, though.

He's just 20 years old at a valuable middle-infield position and has dominated Triple-A this season after posting a .796 OPS there over 18 games a season ago. This year, Holliday has bested that emphatically, posting a .944 OPS with Norfolk this year while racking up 10 hom runs and 23 doubles to his credit.

Writing a player off because his first taste of big-league action before he's legally allowed to consume an alcoholic beverage would absolutely be a fool's errand. Holliday is still the goods and is still rightfully ranked as MLB's top prospect. Trading him for immediate help -- even if it were for a star-caliber option like a Mason Miller or Tarik Skubal -- would be a shortsighted mistake that would go against most of what the Orioles have built to be a contender this season and last season alike.

The Padres clearly recognize this when it comes to Salas, so let's hope Baltimore follows suit with Holliday.