Orioles admit a Jackson Holliday-sized mistake with another top prospect

The Baltimore Orioles recently called up 22-year-old third baseman Coby Mayo from Triple-A Norfolk, giving their top prospect (not named Jackson Holliday) a chance to earn his striples at the big-league level before the playoffs. Mayo's arrival came on the heels of Jordan Westburg's fractured hand, which occured when an errant inside fastball clocked his knuckles.

MLB Pipeline's No. 10 prospect, Mayo joined the Orioles lineup with immediately high expectations. Even at 22, there was a genuine hope that Mayo would excel rapidly and win a spot in the O's lineup. He has been utterly dominant in the minors this season (.301/.375/.586) and Baltimore's hitting development program tends to lap the competition.

Alas, in hindsight, maybe the Orioles rushed it. Baltimore cut the Mayo experiment short on Thursday, demoting him back to Triple-A Norfolk while calling up 24-year-old Liván Soto.

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Orioles demote Coby Mayo to Triple-A Norfolk after horrendous MLB debut

Mayo looked completely overmatched in seven MLB games. He slashed .059/.200/.059 with 10 strikeouts in 20 plate appearances, batting 1-for-17 with one single. He managed two runs. There just wasn't much that went right.

Is this cause for concern? An inflection point for Baltimore's next touted infield prospect? Of course not. It's a 20-AB sample in his age-22 season, a brief spell that will be lost to the sands of memory in due time. We saw this exact situation play out with Jackson Holliday earlier in the season, when Baltimore called him up and kept him around for less than a month before a demotion back to Triple-A.

What was Holliday's batting average at the time of his demotion? Well, great question. It was .059 — the exact same as Mayo.

Do not panic, Baltimore fans. This is a momentary blip on the radar, a flash flood that will return to sea level by tomorrow. Mayo obviously needs more time in the minors to adjust his approach and incorporate the lessons he surely learned over the past couple weeks. This should not impact your assessment of Mayo as a long-term prospect.

The proof is in the pudding with Holliday. After a few months of tweaking in Triple-A, Holliday has returned to the majors and raked. He's batting .255 since his return with five home runs and 51 AB. Pretty, pretty good for a kid who can't legally drink yet. Mayo is a couple years older than Holliday — and not quite on his level as an offensive prospect — but the idea that 20 reps against MLB pitching is enough to judge a prospect is absurd.

The O's can afford a patient approach, too. With so much talent on the roster and a wave of youth coming through the farm system, there isn't a particular rush to develop Mayo. In a dream world, Mayo arrives at the MLB level and looks the part of a long-time All-Star. In reality, however, Baltimore will be perfectly fine letting Soto take a crack at third while Westburg heals.

Baltimore is locked in a tight AL East race, so there's no time to dawdle with Mayo tanking lineups. There is, however, plenty of time for Mayo to develop at a more natural pace in Triple-A. Odds are he gets another shot (and looks much better) in 2025.