The Orioles' Triple-A hitting coach has been impressed with Jackson Holliday's adjustments after the top prospect struggled in the majors.
Jackson Holliday is back to doing Jackson Holliday things.
It took only two games, but the Orioles’ top prospect has shaken off his disappointing first stint in the majors and resumed his mashing of minor league pitching. Holliday is hitting .289 with a home run and three doubles over his past 12 games for Triple-A Norfolk. He’s walked (15) more than he’s struck out (12), showing the kind of production that prompted the Orioles to call up the 20-year-old in the first place.
“He’s doing exactly what we’re asking him to do,” Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias told The Baltimore Sun on Monday. “He’s putting the work in. He’s been a very encouraging performer in the time he’s been back down there, and I think things are trending in a really good direction. He’s doing a great job of putting in a lot of work, and he’s had good results to show for it already. Things are looking good.”
While the results have been the same, Holliday has been making minor changes to his stance to better ensure he can carry over that production the next time he reaches the majors. The Orioles didn’t task Holliday with any drastic overhauls of his mechanics — he was baseball’s consensus No. 1 overall prospect for a reason — but they wanted to put him in the best position possible to make every swing count.
“He said this, just tighten some things up that he felt was going to help him,” Norfolk hitting coach Mike Montville said in a phone interview. “It’s kind of a balance between like, ‘OK, let’s go back to what you’ve always done that’s made you good and what are these little tiny adjustments — whether it’s at-bat to at-bat or pitcher to pitcher, pitch to pitch — that you need to do to be successful.’ And I think he realized that there’s a lot less mistakes up there so he just wanted to tighten some things up just consistently that would allow him to make sure that he hits those mistakes more often than not.”
Holliday’s timing is centered around his large leg kick — a method for generating momentum in a swing that has fallen out of fashion among MLB hitters amid the rise in pitch velocity, and therefore decrease in available reaction time, over the past decade. Good balance is key to an effective leg kick and Montville believes Holliday has the right amount of body control to pull it off. Rather than abandon it, Holliday has adopted a lower crouch in his stance to make it easier for him to adjust mid-swing.
“When guys throw harder and have better stuff, there is less room for error and less room for timing mistakes,” Montville said. “So, just being in your legs the right way and making sure that you’re ready to go every pitch and ready to get your best swing off is important. In some guys it helps and in some guys it hurts and I think what a lot of guys have to do is find that balance for them where it’s not too much but they still can feel athletic and move the right way.”
One of the most glaring problems for Holliday during his 2-for-34 start with the Orioles was his lack of damage against fastballs. According to Statcast, Holliday swung and missed at 59.4% of heaters, faring better against offspeed pitches (40%) and breaking balls (35.3%). High velocity is among the most difficult aspects of the major leagues for a prospect to prepare for; many Triple-A pitchers throw hard, but Holliday doesn’t see them as often as he did with the Orioles.
As Montville pointed out, Holliday can’t approach at-bats against a Triple-A pitcher throwing 94 mph like he would an MLB closer flirting with triple digits. The focus instead has been on his approach. A more athletic stance makes it easier for him to make adjustments and catch up to pitches even if his timing is a little off. With more repetitions against high-level pitching — Holliday has still only played 52 games above Double-A — the Orioles’ young infielder has the opportunity to develop his instincts for recognizing different pitches and arm slots so he can react accordingly.
“If you go back, I’ve seen Jackson hit really hard fastballs,” Montville said. “So, you know it’s in there. I think the hardest part is you may see guys that come up and throw really hard here in Triple-A, but you see it night after night up in the big leagues and it’s just like there’s no real like, ‘OK, I get a little bit of a break here.’ You have guys you feel more comfortable against but I think you work on it as much as you can in your training and you try to simulate stuff that mixes up timing and make sure you’re in as good of a position as you can to hit every every type of pitch and every speed.”
Each week, The Baltimore Sun will break down five of the top performers in the Orioles’ prospect ranks and hand out some superlatives for those who didn’t make that cut. Here’s who stood out:
Jud Fabian had himself a career week in Bowie. He started off with his first career multi-homer game Tuesday, collecting four hits, five RBIs and a stolen base to lead a 17-1 win over Akron. Though he only had three hits the rest of the week, Fabian stuffed the highlight reel by robbing a home run over the center field wall Thursday and making a diving catch to take away another hit Saturday night. The 2022 second round pick leads Bowie with six home runs and sports an .826 OPS in 27 games.
The hits keep coming for Connor Norby, who went 6-for-14 (.429) with one home run, one double, three RBIs, three walks and two strikeouts before suffering a wrist injury Friday. Baltimore announced Norby left the game as a precaution, but he missed Norfolk’s games on both Saturday and Sunday. Norby has picked up right where he left off last season offensively while spending more time in the outfield.
After getting off to a slow start to the 2024 season, 2023 first-round pick Enrique Bradfield Jr. reached base in all five of Aberdeen’s games last week. He showed how big of a factor he can be if he can get on base consistently, stealing five bases and scoring as many runs. Bradfield’s speed and defense are MLB-ready tools. Should he develop the hit tool enough, the majors won’t be far away.
Justin Armbruester pitched what was easily his best start of the season Wednesday, allowing three runs on five hits with two walks and five strikeouts in six innings. The right-hander has struggled mightily this season with a 9.47 ERA in seven appearances (six starts), but his bounceback outing is much more in line with the results he had at Double-A Bowie last season when he finished with a 2.47 ERA in 12 starts.
Mac Horvath put all his offensive tools on display this week. The Orioles’ second 2023 draft selection behind Bradfield went 5-for-13 (.385) with a home run, one double, four walks, two strikeouts and six stolen bases. Another slow starter this year, Horvath has played primarily second and third base this season but on Monday made his first start of the season in the outfield.
Samuel Basallo didn’t have a banner week — he posted a .619 OPS — but he reached base exactly once in all six games for Bowie. For a player who fractured his throwing elbow over the winter, the bigger takeaway at this point of the season for Basallo is that he’s started catching with more regularity. The 19-year-old caught three of those six games last week after making his first two starts of the year behind the dish the week before.
He only played three games last week, but Low-A Delmarva outfielder Braylin Tavera made them count, going 6-for-12 (.500) with a triple, a double, four RBIs and two stolen bases. The Orioles signed Tavera out of the Dominican Republic in 2022 to a then-team record $1.7 million bonus and he’s gotten off to a nice start to his professional career with strong numbers in the Dominican Summer League and Florida Complex League. He’s a player to watch this season while getting his first look above rookie ball.
Facing the best team in the Eastern League on May 7, Bowie right-hander Alex Pham allowed a leadoff triple to begin the game before settling in and retiring the next 15 hitters he faced. Perhaps his most impressive feat was avoiding a single walk, keeping his pitch count down despite going as deep as he has in any start this season. Pham has 10 strikeouts to just three walks over his past two starts.
The Orioles made roster moves all over their farm system last week, activating right-hander Keagan Gillies (Bowie), infielder Max Wagner (Aberdeen) and utility man and Maryland product Maxwell Costes (Delmarva) from the injured list. Infielder Terrin Vavra, who made the Orioles’ opening day roster in 2023 before injuries derailed his career, reported to Norfolk after wrapping up a rehab assignment with Aberdeen. Norfolk also placed outfielder Hudson Haskin (concussion) and right-hander Bruce Zimmermann (right hamstring strain) on the IL.
Baltimore Sun reporter Jacob Calvin Meyer contributed to this article.
