The Orioles shocked the baseball world yesterday by reassigning top prospect Jackson Holliday to minor league camp, effectively ending his bid to make the Opening Day roster. The consensus #1 prospect in the entire sport, Holliday has taken the minors by storm since being selected first overall in the 2022 draft. After hitting .297/.489/.422 in 20 games down the stretch the year he was drafted between rookie ball and Single-A, Holliday tore through the minors in 2023 to advance all the way to the Triple-A level before the end of his first full season as a pro. In 125 games last year, Holliday slashed .323/.442/.499, including a strong .338/.421/.507 showing in 36 games at the Double-A level. The youngster continued to tear the cover off the ball this spring as well, slashing .311/.354/.600 across 15 games during camp.
GM Mike Elias today explained the club’s decision to start Holliday in the minor leagues after that incredible performance to reporters, including MASN’s Roch Kubatko. Among the reasons Elias listed for Holliday not breaking camp with the Orioles was his lack of experience against left-handed pitching. Holliday’s numbers against southpaws last year, while decent, were not at the same caliber as those he posted against right-handed pitching. While he crushed righties to a .331/.437/.551 slash line, his 124 trips to the plate against lefties last year saw him hit just .296/.387/.389. Elias also suggested that Holliday’s minimal experience at second base- where the club plans to play him in the majors- was another motivating factor behind Holliday’s demotion. The youngster has started primarily at shortstop throughout his professional career and has only 25 appearances at the keystone in 145 career minor league games.
Of course, those reasons for sending Holliday to the minors to open the year, however valid they may be, won’t outweigh the impact the move could have on Holliday’s future team control in the eyes of many. A player must be on the major league roster or injured list for at least 172 days of the 187-day season to earn a full year of service time. In other words, if Holliday spends at least 16 days in the minors this year, the Orioles could gain an additional year of team control over the up-and-coming star. Of course, if Holliday were to finish in the top two of AL Rookie of the Year voting this year, he would still be granted a full year of service time even if he spends less than 172 days in the majors this year. It’s also possible the club could reverse course in the early days of the season and call Holliday up in time for him to receive a full service year, in which case the club would receive a draft pick in the event that Holliday wins Rookie of the Year this season or finishes in the top 3 of AL MVP voting during his pre-arbitration seasons.
More from the AL East…
- The Yankees are “seriously considering” right-hander Luis Gil as their fifth starter to open the season, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post. Sherman adds that Gil wouldn’t have any innings restrictions in such a scenario despite having 29 2/3 innings of work across the past two seasons due to Tommy John surgery and the subsequent rehab. With ace Gerrit Cole set to miss the early months of the season due to nerve inflammation in his elbow, the Yankees will need an additional starter to pair with Carlos Rodon, Nestor Cortes, Marcus Stroman, and Clarke Schmidt in the rotation. Barring an external addition, Sherman indicates that the fifth spot in the rotation is likely to come down to either Gil or Will Warren, a 24-year-old righty who posted a 3.35 ERA in 129 innings between the Double- and Triple-A levels last year. Gil is the more experienced hurler of the two, with 33 1/3 innings in the majors under his belt. Those seven starts in the big leagues came during the 2021 and 2022 seasons and saw Gil pitch to a solid 3.78 ERA with a 4.12 FIP. [UPDATE: Gil has indeed won the fifth starter’s job, Boone told the New York Post’s Greg Joyce and other reporters today.]
- Center field prospect Ceddanne Rafaela will break camp with the Red Sox to open the season, Alex Cora told reporters (including Alex Speier of the Boston Globe) this afternoon. Rafaela has appeared likely to make the club in the aftermath of injuries suffered by both second baseman Vaughn Grissom and outfielder Rob Refsnyder this spring. The 23-year-old has experience both on the infield dirt and in the outfield, though he figures to see the bulk of his playing time in center field as part of an outfield mix that also contains Tyler O’Neill, Jarren Duran, Wilyer Abreu, and Masataka Yoshida. Rafaela made his big league debut last season with a 28-game cup of coffee that saw him hit just .241/.281/.386 in 89 plate appearances, though he slashed a far more impressive .312/.370/.618 in 60 games at the Triple-A level last year.
- Sticking with the Red Sox, veteran catcher Roberto Perez won’t be opting out of his minor league deal with the club according to Chris Cotillo of MassLive. Perez, 35, has spent the majority of his career in Cleveland and is regarded as one of the finest defensive catchers in the game, though he’s slashed just .169/.268/.288 since the start of the 2020 season and was limited to just 5 games in the majors last year before undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery. Should the club stick with its current catching tandem of Reese McGuire and Connor Wong, that would leave Perez likely ticketed for Triple-A to open the season, where he’d serve as an excellent non-roster depth option for the Red Sox in the early part of the season. As an Article XX(B) free agent, Perez will have additional opportunities to opt-out of his deal with the club on May 1 and June 1 should he decide to test the open market later this season.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with manipulating his service time. Nothing at all.
I despise when teams waste talent like this. Especially top tier talent. Baseball fans want to see this guy play in the show. Orioles fans must be pi$$ed! It’s a major shame of the game when teams do this. Let the kid play!
Clown franchise that’s nickle and diming their fans when they should be doing everything possible to win while the window’s open.
You all are so ridiculous. This a 20 year old kid w less than 20 games of AAA experience and he’s being asked to play a new position. Do you really want him doing this in the majors?
Also, he struck out in 1/3 of his spring training AB’s so he likely needs a bit more time. I just don’t get all the excitement – he is going to be down there for like 50 games and in the meantime the O’s will be using the same lineup that won 101 games a year.
“ Clown franchise”. Seriously ? 101 wins, the best minor league system in baseball and 3 number 1 prospects in a row. So maybe they know how to do this a little better than everyone on social media.
I never thought for a second he’d go north in April – and I guarantee he and his dad have known since the start of camp and they are 100% on board. Sure he’d like to be there opening day, but he gets what’s in his long term interest.
Folks need to relax – it’s a long year.
Dot – So am I the only one here who believes it’s a moot point?
As long as he plays at least 120 games with the big club, dude is gonna get his full year of service time.
He’s gonna finish Top Two for ROY.
Fever, a lot can happen to assume he will finish top two. Casas had as great a second half as possible but finished third. An injury could easily take place or he could simply have a good but not great campaign. Unfortunately for him, the CBA while improved still left the door open. No disrespect meant but it happened so let’s move on. Don’t you think the RS would have considered it with Ceddane if it weren’t for the injuries? Barring an amazing start, he’ll be sent down when others are healthy. It is what it is.
dewey – I don’t think Casas is a good comp, he was good offensively for only 3 1/2 months and bad defensively at one of the easiest positions.
Sure injuries can always happen, that’s why I put in the 120 game stipulation.
Hey I’m not an O’s fan so Jackson starting the season in the minors won’t keep me awake at night. I just strongly believe he will have a better rookie season than Langford and Carter, and I also think those two guys will each get fewer votes because they are on the same team.
Rafaela didn’t perform well in his short time with the Sox last year, he still has to prove himself IMO. He’s not even in the Top 20 for AL ROY candidates.
You know who is? Abreu at #9 and Mayer at #18.
Abreu? Not a shot (hope I’m wrong). Mayer? Only injuries get him up in 24. on another subject, MLB has Anderson signing a minor league deal, not MLB deal
It’s likely, but nothing is guaranteed
No need to rush the kid. He still has to ask his friend’s cool older brother to buy beer for him.
I wonder who’s buying Jackson Merrill’s beer?
MLB has done a great job in recent decades to convince fans that baseball is an old man’s game. It’s not. It’s a young man’s game. That means the majority of ball players in the MLB should be in their early 20’s. While for “various reasons” the majority of of players are in their early 30’s & late 20’s. Seems they come up older and sing contracts playing into their late 30’s and 40’s and in my opinion the majority guys in the show should be late teens – early 20’s. If they are good enough. AAA is often a waste of time / talent.
And I love when people say- omg he has to learn a new position lmao the dude can most likely play every infield position.
He can play every infield position … poorly.
It’s obvious you’ve never watched him play the field, 78IQ.
I don’t think the Orioles “shocked the Baseball world” by sending Holliday down, I’m pretty sure we all saw it coming. He’ll be back soon enough.
Not surprising Perez is sticking around only 13 PA’s on the spring and not likely to get a Major League spot at this juncture so why leave a minor league deal only to have to find another one
LOL~! I always thought it was 50/50. Maybe it only shocked the writers at MLB-R.
Wonder if it’ll take about……. 17 days for Holliday to learn second base and gain experience against left-handed hitting.
Maybe the Yankees should worry more about can’t miss Volpe than what other teams are doing. Seeing as you spent how much and have go resort to 4th OFs cast off by “lesser” teams to fill out the roster?
You obviously didn’t read the article if you didn’t get the reference. If you did get the reference, but still responded so aggressively, I simply don’t understand how that could offend you.
My sincere hope is you didn’t read the article and responded in ignorance. If you did read it before responding, you’re right up there with Filihok and Samuel.
Volpe seems to be doing great. Any other questions?
Which one of the three Yankees starting outfielders are fourth outfielders on another team? Judge, Soto, or Verdugo? Verdugo’s 2023 fWAR of 2.0 ranks him at #33 out of all MLB outfielders. Your smack talk game needs improvement, dude.
Yeh, lets see, starting SS, Gold Glove winner, 20 steals, 20 HR’s….anything else brainiac?
Who wouldn’t want a guy who could hit .296 against lefties?
I didn’t understand that either- He hit “just” .296?
In low minors
He has a lot of work to do to learn how to play 2B.
I’m usually all for getting on a club for keeping a guy down for service manipulation etc. but in this case I think there are legitimate reasons to have him start in the minors. Might he be ready for the majors? It’s possible… but at the same time the Orioles already have a full infield and he’s only 20 years old… another couple months in the minors could really do him some good too… now if they have some injuries and/or call him up the second the service time issue is past then I’ll be 100% against their actions. But for right now… he’s only out of hs for a year and a half lol… a case can definitely be made for giving him time to adjust to 2B and a little more seasoning. For the record I do NOT buy the vs lefties… he “only” hit .296 … LOL
By the way, I love how 18 games at AAA is enough to declare service time manipulation.
Funny how we didn’t apply this to Saint Jeter when we played 123 in AAA at 21. You know, a year older than Holliday.
You may have missed the very notable part where Holliday is the current consensus #1 top prospect whereas Derek Jeter was ranked #6 by Baseball America entering the 1996 season.
And there’s a MASSIVE difference between #1 and #6, because the people who do those rankings ALWAYS get them right. Yeesh.
Jeter and Holliday are two different players, from two different time periods, from two different teams. Get a grip dude you sound ridiculous.
Not to mention that the Yankees were going to keep him forever so service time was meaningless. Kind of like Error in Judgement. There are sometimes players that are going to play for one team their entire career. Not that you can predict that, but I’m sure teams at least weigh that in a little bit. Well, obnoxiously arrogant teams like the Yankees.
It was surprising, I’ll give you that. But “shocked the baseball world” is a bit hyperbolic.
It is a date that shall live in the infirmary. Or something like that.
He’ll be a good player but if they want him to learn a new position it makes at least some sense to give him time to do that.
If they planned to play him at 2nd base, why didn’t he play there in spring training?
One franchise doesn’t even think twice about naming Wyatt Langford to the opening day roster and doubles down on investments after injuries to marquee free agents, on their way to a championship. The other franchise twists itself into a pretzel trying to justify service time manipulation, doesn’t spend to help out a team on the cusp of a pennant drive and then is reluctant to trade prospect capital for the likes of Dylan Cease. A tale of two franchises.
They traded for Corbin Burnes instead….
Lol. I’ll take Burnes over Cease. And didn’t they sign a guy named Kimbrel to replace an injured Felix Bautista?
He’s an obvious White Sox fan showing his jealousy and feeling spurned by the Orioles.
Craig Crumble? Good luck w that
Or a one time Baltimore resident who’s tired seeing another team nickle and dime when they should be thinking smarter in an always challenging AL east. They’re frugal ways on the other hand are perfectly suited for the NL central.
Is that suppose to be a rebuttal?
You’ll get your rebuttal in August when Krumble is demoted from the closer job from his fourth pennant contending team in four seasons. In case you don’t pay attention to things like the Major league baseball playoffs that would be the White Sox, Dodgers and Phillies on successive playoff rosters.
Hope that works out for you in 2025. Personally I a rooting for Balt to finish right where a talented by poorly run team deserves. 500
Right? Short sighted decisions the difference between being a top 2 team in the AL or squeaking in to the playoffs as a third place team and then facing an uphill battle. Tho maybe they’re playing 4D chess and figure the Diamondback-Ranger wildcard path is the way to go.
Everything you said is on point except for cease. For one burnes was who they pivoted to and he’s a way better pitcher, a true ace compared to cease who still has things he needs to work on to get to that point, and for two one year of burns might sting a little more than two years of cease but at the same time they didn’t get rid of as much and if Grayson Rodriguez turns out to be a stud it’ll offset some of that as I’m sure they will still go out and get a decent starter next year if they fail to extend or re sign burns once he enters free agency. Plus bradish will return at some point and if he continues his ascension the O’s will be perfectly fine without cease. Plus those walks should scare a lot of teams. If so many teams were reluctant to sign Snell, a two time cy young award winner, to a long term contract, why would anyone give up a huge package of prospects for essentially the same pitcher. Cease isn’t as good as he’s made out to be, especially in the long run if he can’t get those walks down to at least league average.
You’re right about Cease, why his time with the White Sox was maddening. He couldn’t get through 6 with any consistency due to high pitch counts and couldn’t be counted on as a playoff type ace. Not so much debating the specifics of Burnes v Cease so much as calling put the Os for their penny ante tactics of silly service time manipulation (which is so 2014) and the hoarding prospect mentality when you have exhibit B of a Ranger club in gun slinger mode willing to spend and fast track prospects when ready. A few game difference and the Rangers wouldn’t even be in the playoffs last year and in the position to win it all. That’s the margin of difference in an ultra competitive AL.
One franchise, Texas, spent to their limit, and still had holes in their lineup, allowing easy additions from the minors. The other franchise, Baltimore, is bogged down with lots of prospects, and no easy way of playing all of them, and has not really spent their available cash, though its less than Texas has. They have the luxury of developing players at a pace that will better allow them to succeed. Langford is being rushed and regardless of how well he does, there will always be the question of could he have been better with more minor league seasoning.
You can say there will be this question of if he could be better but over the next decade if he produces at a hall of fame level I don’t think there will be a question if he could be better than his hall of fame pace he’s on. Both are hypothetical though and he might end up being a bust, or a hall of famer. It’s too early to tell on either one of those things.
Also if holiday has an injury in the minors that is career altering should the question be asked that he should have been in the majors, in a different environment, against different players where that injury may not have happened? Again its hypothetical and there are reasons for and against him being in both the minors and the majors. If he’s ready he should play, and if he indeed does need some work it’s understandable. At the same time though if he’s beyond the date of being called up to where he can qualify for an extra year of service, then it clearly shows at least some intent to manipulate his service time. Ronald acuna made his debut when he was 19, holiday is one year older and has the potential to be as good as acuna so there is definitely a spot for younger players to make the majors.
Except Holliday, Stowers and Kjerstad aren’t so much being blocked by each other but by the curious decision to run the likes of Urias and McKenna out there. At least Colton Cowser made the roster. At some point when you have a slam dunk prospect like a Bobby Witt or Jackson Holliday you have to make the call to kick the season off with them, which the Rangers seem to be doing with Wyatt Langford and the Padres with Merrill.
owners want cheap labor…..havent yall noticed with all these debuts recently. Theyll kick the good players to the curb once they hit FA. Not about winning anymore its about cheap labor. Hope the rangers ruin Langford by rushing him because hes cheap.
You hope they ruin a young kid just to prove your point? Be better.
Rushing players because they’re inexpensive is exactly how you remain ahead of the curve, as with the case in the NFL- succeeding with top tier players in their rookie contracts
Isn’t calling the reassignment a demotion a bit of editorializing, MTR? He’s never played higher than AAA and was a minor-league invitee to the big league camp so it was in truth a reassignment.
I want to see Jackson in the big leagues ASAP too, but Elias and his team have a proven track record of success so I’m going to trust their judgment on this. There’s a reason I pay for the seat I sit in at the stadium and they get paid to sit in the one they do.
The Yankees are best with Warren in rotation and Gil in pen. 100 mph in short spurts coming back from injury makes a ton of sense. Warren has built up and lets see if he is a viable starter.
On any other team Holliday would be a victim of roster manipulation. O’s are loaded.
No cap on Gil’s innings is the right move.
Do you read all the comments first by people who know what they are talking about and then disagree? It’s really not cute
Holliday is easily their best choice for 2b he’ll be up in 3 weeks, stop pretending this is about anything else
No Dusty I watch baseball and understand it better than you. And then you pick a fight with me.
Orioles have an infield of Gunner, Urias, Mateo, Westburg (not including 1B where Mountcastle and Santander play occasionally). Who are you dropping? O’Hearn?
O’s need to get Holliday reps at a particular position to get him up in 4-6 weeks, maybe sooner due to injury.
What were you trying to prove here?
Yes, drop Ohearn. Or bench one of Urias, Mateo or Westburg. One of the 5 players is elite. The others are above average or replacement level. That’s like saying the Royals should have kept Bobby Witt down because their infield was already crowded with Michael Massey, Nicky Lopez, Hunter Dozier, AL Mondesi and…you guessed it, your new friend Ryan O’Hearn. Let’s go back to when you were 8 and play a game. Holliday, Urias, Mateo, Westburg, O’Hearn. Guess which one is not like the others?
Except he might need to play outfield. Guess what isn’t like being 8? Having to work on positions. And, he does need to work out a problem vs left handed pitching where he steps in the bucket compared to facing RHP. That won’t take long to fix.
As I said before, any other team this decision to demote Holliday would be bull. This is one team you kinda see it. He’s up before May, if not sooner.
Elias prioritizes defense. Jax is weak defensively currently..
And…Norfolk‘s 1 thru 5 would play in the bigs on many other teams. None of the “experts” above gave a reasonable demotion argument to any current Oriole position player.
Ohearn has a career OPS of .714, and you think we need to give you an explanation of why he’s blocking the best prospect in baseball lol.
You try so hard in these boards to argue and pretend you know what you’re talking about but the reality is you’re just a grump who can spell and doesn’t know a lick about baseball.
Pretending like this is anything beyond roster manipulation is hilarious, especially based on how they’ve handled the rest of their young stars. It’s fine and I get it, most do, not you know though
Learn to write properly, please. It’s bad enough you are clueless about baseball and the evaluation of a team like Baltimore. “Not you know though” – riveting piece of writing there Dusty.
Basically you are saying Jackson Holliday should be on the bench and be a fringe starter. You say O’Hearn has to go…only you didn’t realize he is a platoon player. But hey, if you think Holliday will improve coming off the bench you are entitled to your opinion.
When you come at me from a place of hatred it tends to hurt your argument. To say this is roster manipulation without understanding the roster of the Orioles tells us what we need to know about what you don’t.
I can tell you have not watched Holliday actually play baseball. You’ve possibly watched highlights, but you clearly have not watched full games, where his defensive weaknesses and poor fundamentals are on glaring display.
The current Orioles’ front office has not practiced team control manipulation with any players. Not a single one.
Dusty wants Jackson to be on the bench instead of getting regular at bats and reps in the field. Dusty knows a lot.
It’s all about team control. The same way the Cardinals manipulated walkers control last year by sending him to the minors for 6 weeks for no reason. Come on this isn’t Rocket Science it’s about keeping your assets a year longer!
Yankees rotation without Cole is some seriously thin gruel. Why wait until Rodon gets injured to pay Montgomery?
Pay up already.
Gonna be a gruel gruel summer for the Yankees.
The Yankees are obviously trying to avoid committing to a long term contract for Huge money (double his salary due to the tax situation) in Monty even though I agree with you that they are starter thin….however, guess they’re banking on Cole coming back in 8 weeks, and that Gil and Warren at the back end will not hurt too badly…..just hope Rodon isn’t a disaster and that Nasty Nester has more than guile in his pocket…….
What it means also is that the O’s haven’t found a trade partner yet to help alleviate some of their current positional excess.
Good to see them in a position of strength after all those bad losing seasons….should be fun to watch O’s baseball again continue to be excellent with the cast they have both at the ML level and at the farm waiting to come up…..
Gunnar Henderson’s splits against LHP aren’t very good either. His slash against lefties in 2023 was .209/.293/.324/.618.
The Orioles should send Mr. Henderson to AAA so he can get some more practice against LHP.
Well played Oscar, assuming that was your bit!
Difference being Gunnar is one of the top defensive SS in the league. Jax can’t backhand, doesn’t plant his right foot to make throws and has a weak arm. Sure, they’re exactly the same.
Ceddane makes team. If it was up to me, which obviously it is not, Abreu goes to AAA.
“ONLY” .296/.387… haha
The dude has a 15/3 K/W in only 45 ABs. I don’t think it is unreasonable to want to get him into a good groove before promoting him.
Excited to see Rafaela break camp with the team.Rooting for Ceddane and Abreu to seize their opportunity.
He only hit .297 against lefties. lol. Double what Stanton hit.
Monty is going to sign a one year contract (possibly with a one year player option) a day or two after the season starts. He won’t be subject to the QO next year if he does this, It could be with the Yankees.