Holliday to begin season in minors
SARASOTA, Fla. — Jackson Holliday will have to wait to make his MLB debut.
Holliday, the best prospect in baseball, will not make the Orioles’ opening day roster after the club reassigned him to minor league camp Friday.
Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said during the winter meetings that the 20-year-old had a “very strong possibility” to make the opening day roster. Holliday did everything he could to make that reality during spring training — hitting .311 with a .954 OPS, playing clean defense at second base and acting like a big leaguer throughout the process — but it wasn’t enough to convince the Orioles to bring him north with them.
In addition to Holliday, the Orioles also optioned outfielders Heston Kjerstad and Kyle Stowers to minor league camp and reassigned right-hander Albert Suárez, catcher David Bañuelos and infield prospects Coby Mayo and Connor Norby.
Throughout camp, as Holliday impressed on and off the field, it seemed more likely that he would make the team. Manager Brandon Hyde was asked this week if Holliday looks like a big leaguer despite looking like a teenager in the face.
“It’s hard to say he doesn’t,” Hyde said.
But the potential reasons — his age, his lack of Triple-A experience, his transition to playing second base — persisted. So did the reality of baseball’s economics, in which a prospect’s service time is often more important than his performance on the field. By having Holliday spend the first few weeks of the season in the minors, it’s possible the Orioles gain another season of his services before he hits free agency.
Elias said having Holliday open the season in Triple-A, where he played only 18 games last year as he zoomed through the minors in unprecedented fashion, is the best thing for his development. The club’s top executive listed Holliday’s lack of experience versus quality left-handed pitching and his position change to second base as reasons to start him in the minors.
“It’s about completing his development,” Elias said.
Elias maintained that Holliday did have a “good chance” of breaking camp with the team as he said during the winter meetings. He said it was a “very tough decision” to make and that he and the ballclub’s brass “agonized” over it.
But Elias is confident they made the right decision.
“He’s going to benefit from having more time in Triple-A,” he said.
Holliday, a left-handed hitter, performed well against southpaws in the minors last year, hitting .296 with a .387 on-base percentage. But he didn’t hit a single homer off lefties and posted an OPS that was more than 200 points worse than his line against righties. This spring, Holliday struggled in a small sample against left-handers, going 2-for14 with nine strikeouts and one walk. But one of those hits was a grand slam off former All-Star Yusei Kikuchi.
Elias said the Orioles didn’t want to be in a position in which Holliday was a part-time player — hitting solely against righthanders and sitting against lefties, although the majority of big league pitchers are right-handed. He also didn’t want Holliday to potentially struggle to a degree that would necessitate a demotion back to the minors, potentially stunting his development.
Elias said service time wasn’t a factor in the decision.
“It’s unfortunate that we have the specter of that to talk about,” Elias said. “I think this is about an organization that prides itself on developing elite talents, putting a player in the best position for his own long-term success and for the short- and long-term success of the team and the roster that he’s on.”
Last season, the Orioles made a similar decision with righthander Grayson Rodriguez, the club’s top pitching prospect at the time. After the flamethrower had an up-and-down spring training, Baltimore had him begin the season in Triple-A, but Rodriguez was promoted when Kyle Bradish went on the injured list early in the season. Elias didn’t say Jackson was the next man up on the Orioles’ infield when asked.