Red-hot Holliday: No. 1 overall prospect crushes first Double-A jack
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The phrase “on the fast track to the Majors” is commonly used to describe prospects who are rapidly rising through the system.
While that term may work in most cases, it just doesn’t seem sufficient when talking about Jackson Holliday.
The No. 1 prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline was drafted first overall just over a year ago, and since then, he’s climbed all the way to Double-A Bowie, tearing the cover off the ball at every stop along the way.
As you might expect, the top Orioles prospect isn’t just getting his feet wet in Double-A, he already has four multihit games in just eight appearances for the club, and on Saturday he launched his first Double-A big fly in Bowie’s 8-5 win over Harrisburg.
Down one run in the bottom of the seventh, who do you want at the plate? The answer should be Jackson Holliday, because to lead off the inning, the Oklahoma native drilled a laser off right-hander Jack Sinclair knotting the game at 5.
The home run was Holliday's eighth of the season and raised his season OPS to .981.
One inning later, with Bowie leading 7-5, Holliday tacked on an insurance run, swatting a double off the top of the wall in right that plated infielder Greg Cullen.
The laser was inches away from leaving the yard for the 19-year-old's second tater of the game.
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In the eight games that Holliday has played for Bowie, he's been red-hot, slashing .333/.389/.515, striking out just six times in that span.
Holliday is the second-youngest player in Double-A, only older than Brewers outfielder Jackson Chourio, the No. 2 prospect in baseball.
An added layer to Holliday's rapid ascent is that he didn’t even play his first game in the Florida Complex League until Aug. 10. That means he’s made his way to his fourth level in less than a year.
His longest stop was in High-A Aberdeen, where Holliday spent 57 games this season and slashed .314/.452/.488, with an impressive 54/50 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
If past performances can teach us anything, it’s that Holliday, who was playing in high school just over a year ago, looks primed for continued success and maybe even a Triple-A debut in the near future.