Baseball’s No. 1 prospect, Jackson Holliday, is being called up by the Orioles, The Post’s Jon Heyman confirmed Tuesday night.
The decision comes after the O’s had decided to start the 2022 No. 1 overall draft pick in Triple-A Norfolk to begin the year.
The son of seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday will join the Orioles for their road trip in Boston, though it’s unclear when he’ll get into any game action.
The news was met with excitement from baseball fans and even saw the Somerset Patriots — the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate — repost a video on X from last season of Holliday shaking hands with Jasson Dominguez.
Holliday’s stay in Triple-A wasn’t expected to last long, and it was anticipated that he’d make his major league debut at some point this spring, especially the prized prospect slashing .333/.482/.595.
Holliday started off the 2024 minor league season with a bang.
He hit a home run in his first at-bat of the season, crushing his first career homer off a left-handed pitcher.
The decision to send Holliday to the minors was a bit of a controversial one, and Orioles general manager Mike Elias told reporters at the time that the prospect had been “very, very close” to making the team, but he wanted to get him more time against lefties and reps at second base.
“Because of how fast Jackson’s moved and his lack of professional experience — I think he’s only played like 18 games in Triple-A, in particular — he hasn’t faced a ton of major league-quality, or even Triple-A-quality, left-handed pitching,” Elias said, according to the Baltimore Sun.
“And that’s something that’s going to be thrust in his face when he’s in the American League East, whether that’s as a starter or the reliever they bring in to match up against him in the seventh inning.”
During his time at big league spring training, Holliday had hit .311/.354/.600 in 15 games while hitting two home runs and stealing two bases.
His strikeout-to-walk ratio left something to be desired, getting struck out 15 times while walking in just three instances on 48 plate appearances.
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