The Orioles selected high school shortstop Jackson Holliday with the first overall selection of the 2022 amateur draft. Holliday joins Adley Rutschman (2019) and Ben McDonald (1989) as players taken by the Orioles with the 1-1 pick, and he is the first high schooler taken first overall since the Twins drafted Royce Lewis in 2017.
Talent runs in the family, as Jackson is the son of longtime Cardinals and Rockies star Matt Holliday. Continuing the theme of family ties, the younger Holliday becomes only the second son of a former Major League player to be taken with the 1-1 selection — the first was Ken Griffey Jr. back in 1987.
Time will tell if Holliday can approach a Hall-of-Fame or All-Star level, but the 18-year-old is one of the more highly-touted members of the 2022 draft class. Fangraphs and MLB Pipeline each ranked Holliday as the second-best prospect of the class, with Kiley McDaniel and Baseball America each slotting Holliday third on their rankings, and The Athletic’s Keith Law rated Holliday sixth.
A left-handed hitter, Holliday has a smooth swing that generated a lot of hard contract and an increasing amount of power as his senior year progressed. Most evaluators give him at least plus grades across the board, and as Fangraphs’ scouting report puts it, Holliday “checks literally every box, and there aren’t many lefty-hitting shortstops with this kind of juice. He projects as an All-Star shortstop.” While not a defensive standout per se, Holliday’s instincts and throwing arm should allow him to remain at shortstop, though he would seem to have the athleticism to be tested at other positions if the Orioles wanted to experiment.
With Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westburg also in Baltimore’s system as blue-chip shortstop prospects, the O’s have built up some enviable depth at a key position on the diamond. The Orioles’ lengthy rebuild has brought quite a few top youngsters into the farm system, and perhaps the earliest impact is starting to be seen on the field in 2022, given the team’s surprising presence in the wild card race at the All-Star break.
Since Mike Elias took over the Orioles’ front office, the club has traditionally drafted college players early — Grayson Rodriguez (2018) is the only other prep first-rounder selected during Elias’ tenure. Signability has also been a factor for the O’s, who have often taken players slightly lower on projection boards, in an attempt to land players who would sign for under-slot deals.
That way, Baltimore has more bonus-pool space to spend on other quality picks later in the draft, and perhaps have flexibility to go over-slot to land premium talent at lower draft positions. The Orioles have a $16,924,000 bonus pool, and the first overall pick has an assigned slot value of $8,842,200.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Great pick. I’d on the come up
O’s
Orioles drafted a teenage girl first overall.
Kidding.
It sucks for these kids that they’re basically “son of…..” in interviews with the dad right there doing most of the talking.. Let the kid have one moment to himself.
He kinda looks like a teenage girl. Good thing Baltimore didn’t pick John Elway’s son
Yep, your average 6′ 1″, 175-pound teenage girl.
Be careful if you pick up a date in a dark bar. You might be surprised when you get “her” home.
Ain’t nobody got time for that
More concerned by that Fear of God Baseball t-shirt. WTH is that?
I couldn’t make out what it said, but I am curious why that would concern you.
His Dad was “the son of” Tom Holliday forever
Hoping Druw drops to 4th but Lee or Berry would be nice for a faster path but Johnson looks decent too, if he’ll sign at the 4th spot.
Hard to go wrong though
joew: Why on earth would T. Johnson NOT sign at #4 overall?
Because it is Pittsburgh. Sounds like a joke, but remember Mark Appel turned down Pittsburgh when they picked him at #8 and parlayed that into the #1 overall the next year. It would be odd to see a top 10 pick unsigned, but not completely unheard of.
That was kind of expected since Mark Appel was projected to be the no. 1 overall pick, definitely long-gone by pick eight, as the top pitcher that year. Astros opted instead to go underslot with Correa. With Boras as his agent, teams knew they’d have to go well overslot to sign him, so he fell. What he could have gotten as the top pick at slot was more than the Pirates entire pool that season as well.
2011, 1-1 slot: $7.2 million
2011, 1-8 slot: $2.9 million
Appel turned down $6 million from the Astros pre-draft and, eventually, $3.8 million from the Pirates. Correa signed for $4.8 million, even lower than Appel. Astros were able to take that savings and go overslot for their next pick, Lance McCullers, who turned out pretty good for them.
Damn… AZ got Druw
Excellent!
Son of Matt Holliday… liking it already
Great pick. The fact that he’s a lefty put him over the top. Short porch in left
Where’s the Hispanic Titanic going?
Who might that be?
Your mom
The first laugh you got in fifth grade. Never gets old, does it?
Melendez
Not surprised at all that the Orioles drafted Jackson Holiday first overall. Recently it seems the son’s fill the shoes of their fathers and then some. Bichette, Guerrero, Tatis
And before them, Bonds, Griffey, Fielder. You might be onto something.
Ryan Ripken, Pete Rose Jr.
To the author of the article: Grayson Rodriguez was not drafted by Mike Elias.
Grayson Rodriguez was drafted by Dan Duquette.
Indeed out of the Orioles core outside of Adley the only one that Mike Elias can take credit for is Jorge Lopez, the rest were Dan Duquette pickups.
@MLBfan78; Wells may be getting close to core status. An Elias rule 5iver.
He will get called up, go through arbitration and be dealt for prospects and hit free agency before the Orioles are serious contenders again- even with this year’s promising hodgepodge of a line up. They needed pitching, not hitting.
And what pitcher should they have taken first? The Orioles will be serious contenders before he makes it to the show. Your post could not be more overall ignorant.
You never, ever draft for need unless you have two players at different positions rated comparable.
The Orioles also already have Means, and Rodriguez and Hall coming up in the system. The cupboard isn’t bare. They’ve also got a former Houston guy running the show, and the Houston model favored position players over hitters largely in the draft.
If the position player core pans out, which it looks to be starting to, coupled with Hall and Rodriguez… It won’t be a bad club. They can sign or trade for a few arms, then they’re good.
So did the Cubs model. The whole Cubs/Astros rebuild largely relied on homegrown position players and FA or traded veteran pitchers. The Cubs didn’t draft pitching, they signed Jon Lester and others. The Astros traded for Verlander and Cole. The Orioles will likely do something similar either this trade deadline or this off season. They have options for sure. Thor, Manaea, Rodon, Taillon, Musgrove. All of them would fit the model for Baltimore. Luis Castillo or Frankie Montas could fit the Gerrit Cole model as well.
Batimore will be an interesting team to watch the next year or two. At least transaction-wise.
Good post. I agree the O’s will probably need to trade for or sign at least one top veteran pitcher (maybe two) to really contend. Chances are one or more of Rodriguez, Hall or Means could struggle somewhat — at least for awhile. That said Wells and Kremer have been excellent for the O’s this year — just remains to be seen if they can keep it up. If they can the O’s are in pretty nice shape.
Keeping a watch on Georgia Tech, two drafted so far, Parada and Simpson.
If he’s like his dad, expect a lot of crying and dropped balls hit right at him in the playoffs.
If you thought Matt Holliday was supposed to play defense like Andruw Jones, you are sadly mistaken. He was a hitter, plain and simple. That’s like complaining about Nelson Cruz’s defense.
Nelson Cruz cost the Rangers a ring with his defense so I will complain about it.
Great pick by the O’s!
I honestly thought during the draft last night “why is Matt hugging his daughter?” But good for the kid.
Who exceeds their father status???
Thus far no one IMO. Yet
Status as what? Being better MLB players?
Griffey Jr. and Barry did.
Question is, will we ever have a father-son HOF team in Cooperstown? Bobby Bonds had HOF talent he drank away, and Barry needlessly spoiled his legacy. Guerrero could one day, but I wonder if his body type will age well. Hard to believe they’re father and son based on their physiques.
His son looks like a small Junior type! Was his dad ever that Skinny!
Ken Griffey Jr
Yes like Griffey and Bonds. Who exceeds Father MLB resume.
Holliday looks solid but Matt was how many time Allstars?
Druw Jones has a chance. Has to hit but the leather will always be gold. Looks to have a solid bat
Crawford Jr. looks to have a better bat but still see it hard to come out of dads shadow. Carl’s faster
Biggio is a no
BoBitchette is a no
Vladdy time will tell but still think no. Daddy vladdy was built for baseball.
Bobby Witt Jr maybe but has more potential than the other infielders on here.
Lookout for Jack Leiter. Dad was crafty. Son more talented.
Going back a ways. Buddy Bell exceeded his father Gus.
Kind of a tough call with the combo of Bret and Aaron Boone over their dad, Bob. Although Bob Boone was better than his dad Ray.
Both Roberto and Sandy Jr exceeded Sandy Alomar Sr.
I think I would take Moises Alou over his dad as well.
Robinson Cano was much better than his dad.
Ronald Acuna easily eclipsed his dad by his rookie year.
Tater Tot probably will in time. His dad was a good, not great, player.
I’d take Lance McCullers Jr over Lance Sr also.
Fun topic.
Nice Comment! Dittos Rush!
Barry Bonds, Junior Griffey, Cale Makar, but you’re right, the overwhelming majority don’t.
I forgot two that actually I think have a chance to be better.
Tatis. Needs to stay healthy. Maybe move to 3rd flip manny
Charlie Hayes and Ke’Byran. ke ke has more tools. Loved Charlie Hayes tho.
Mets got a steal with Parada at 11. He was ranked between 4-6 on most lists. Really impressed with their Day 1 haul.
Has to be better pics of this kid…
Grayson was drafted by Duquette. 5 months later Elias took over. His first draft is the 2019 draft.
I agree with the analysis of the look Holiday has! Get aa haircut!
He just needs a beard like his hero Brandon Crawford 🙂
Amazing how catty some men are about other men’s hair. Meow!
Especially bald men.
A player like this that has this much pedigree and talent can grow his hair anyway he wants and as long as he wants to. This isn’t the Yankee organization and thank god for that.