The Baltimore Orioles were one of Major League Baseball’s biggest surprises in 2023. Led by youthful exuberance from the likes of Gunnar Henderson and the great Adley Rutschman, the O’s appeared poised to take another step forward.
That thought churned up even more after the Orioles acquired former Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes. Alas, the Orioles won’t make a move that would surely invoke more excitement from the fanbase. Baltimore will not call top prospect Jackson Holliday up to the Opening Day roster.
MLB Pipeline reporter Sam Dykstra reported the news on the Orioles’ curious decision to re-assign Holliday to the minor league camp.
“The Orioles have reassigned Jackson Holliday to Minor League camp,” Dykstra posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.
The #Orioles have reassigned Jackson Holliday to Minor League camp.
— Sam Dykstra (@SamDykstraMiLB) March 22, 2024
Holliday, a shortstop, is the top prospect in Major League Baseball. He’s the son of former MLB All-Star Matt Holliday, who had a celebrated pro career with the Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics, and St. Louis Cardinals, most notably. Holliday is an exciting talent who has already gotten a lot of hype and promotion. He’s been featured in the last two MLB The Show video games.
But while all that is true, Baltimore balked at bringing him to the big league club. The expectation appears to be that he might show up in late April, meaning there might be some salary circumvention going on. That irritated several, but the O’s won’t back off this decision now. So Jackson Holliday will start the year in Triple-A.
Their decision contrasts heavily with the Milwaukee Brewers and Texas Rangers, who will bring their top prospects up for Opening Day.
