Holliday optioned back to Norfolk

Prospect to make adjustments at plate after MLB struggles

The last time the Orioles played a Friday night game at Camden Yards, they handed out T-shirts with Jackson Holliday’s face on them. When they take the field Friday, Holliday won’t be there.

The Orioles optioned Holliday, baseball’s consensus No. 1 prospect, to Triple-A Norfolk amid the 20-year-old’s struggles to begin his big league career. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 MLB draft went 2-for34 — a .059 batting average — in his first 10 major league games. Baltimore selected the contract of outfielder Ryan McKenna to replace Holliday on Baltimore’s 26-man roster and designated catcher David Bañuelos for assignment to make room for McKenna on the club’s 40-man roster.

General manager Mike Elias spoke for 20 minutes before Friday night’s game against the Oakland Athletics about his decision to demote Holliday, describing the move as a “little hiccup” in what the club still expects to be a stellar major league career.

“He’s ultimately going to be better off for it,” Elias said. “Once it became clear to me that he would benefit better from going back to Triple-A — resetting his head, first and foremost, but also making some adjustments at the plate — wanted to do it as quickly as possible.”

Holliday’s early skid was more than just a normal slump. While it was a small sample size, the young infielder appeared overmatched. He struck out 18 times in 36 plate appearances (50%) and walked just twice (5.5%). In his minor league career, he walked 18.9% of the time — the same as his strikeout rate.

Elias said Holliday received “very intense, very specific feedback” during his first stint in the majors, to which Holliday needs to adjust. Those alterations, Elias said, are best made in Norfolk, not in Baltimore, to ensure Holliday receives everyday at-bats, though

the Orioles’ top executive wouldn’t name what they are. Holliday was sitting against left-handed starting pitchers, several of whom the Orioles will face over the next few weeks.

“This game up here, people attack your weaknesses until you stop showing them to be weaknesses,” Elias said. “He kind of knows what that attack looks like right now.”

“He’s a brilliant talent and a very sharp kid,” Elias added. “I expect he’s gonna go and correct those adjustments really quickly.”

The decision to have Holliday, who tore through the minor leagues in 2023, begin the season in Triple-A was controversial. But as he dominated with the Norfolk Tides and the Orioles’ second basemen struggled early, Baltimore elected to promote Holliday, deeming him ready for the show.

He made his MLB debut against the Boston Red Sox and began his career 0-for13 before recording his first hit against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 14. He then went hitless in his next five games, sitting against left-handed starting pitchers, before getting his second hit Tuesday in Anaheim against the Los Angeles Angels.

Despite scuffling at the plate, Holliday handled the pressure and media attention with aplomb. He answered questions humbly when the hype for the beginning of his career was at its apex, and he didn’t shy away as he slumped.

Elias and manager Brandon Hyde said Holliday’s early struggles didn’t hamper their belief in his future.

“100 percent,” Elias said when asked if he’s just as confident about Holliday’s future now as he was two weeks ago. “Perhaps more so with just the way he handled himself through this and learning second base really quickly on the fly. I couldn’t be more excited about him as an Oriole, and then also as a talent that anybody who’s a fan of the sport is going to be able to watch.

“He’s got an extremely bright future. We just need to polish up some things for a 20-year-old.”

Added Hyde: “I admire how he’s so mature, even though he looks — he’s so young. You forget that sometimes because he’s so talented. How he’s handled everything has been incredible.”

One of the largest accusations levied at Elias when he elected to start Holliday in Triple-A was that he was doing so for service-time manipulation.

By keeping Holliday in the minors for the first few weeks of the season, the Orioles could have kept him under team control for an extra season in 2030 because of the way Major League Baseball calculates a player’s service.

That was proved false when Holliday was promoted three days before the club would gain that extra season. But by sending him down now, Baltimore will almost certainly gain an extra year of Holliday’s services.

Elias has said in the past that service time isn’t a factor in the club’s decision-making for prospect promotions. The focus in the short term for Holliday, Elias said, is to “prioritize his own development” rather than keep him in the majors and potentially slow his progression.

“This is me without a crystal ball trying to make the right decision for a precocious talent,” Elias said. “There’s not a playbook for how to handle somebody who was moving along as quickly and as well as he was. And for better or worse, this is kind of how it landed. We’re just trying to do the right thing in real time, and we think he’ll benefit from Triple-A right now.”

This is far from the Orioles’ first rodeo with a young prospect. Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Colton Cowser and Grayson Rodriguez — the four best prospects the club has promoted in the Elias era — all struggled early in their careers. Rutschman and Henderson, both of whom were also No. 1 overall prospects, worked through their stumbles in the majors, while Cowser and Rodriguez needed more work in the minors before standing out in the majors.

“It’s not easy, just not easy here,” Hyde said. “I think it’s, as you can see from the couple times we’ve sent some prospects down as I’ve been here, they’ve really benefited from it — just the experience up here, the speed of the game, how tough it is, the adjustments that need to be made. That’s the same thing in Jackson’s case. Jackson will be up here soon, he’s going to have a really, really long career ahead of him — a great career ahead of him.”