Five takeaways from Orioles’ Mike Elias and Brandon Hyde after Jackson Holliday’s demotion
In light of news that Jackson Holliday was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk, Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias and manager Brandon Hyde met with reporters pregame Friday to shed light on the move. Outfielder Ryan McKenna replaced baseball’s top prospect on Baltimore’s active roster in a subsequent move.
Here are five takeaways from meeting with Baltimore’s top decision makers.
Was Holliday rushed up the ladder?
The 2022 No. 1 overall pick ascended up the minor leagues much faster than his draft peers, none of which have been promoted past High-A ball yet. His success at each stop made it difficult to slow him down.
But was a big league promotion in early April too much, too soon? Elias said that’s essentially what the decision making boiled down to.
“It’s hard to say,” he said. “We moved him very fast in the minors but it’s because he was doing so well. We were kind of trying to get him to a spot where he’s challenged. Then he gets all the way to Triple-A, comes into spring training, looks pretty good there. It was hard for me to know exactly where he was based on the evidence that I was working with.”
Holliday played 10 games in Triple-A to open this season. There, the 20-year-old infielder slashed .333/.482/.595, recording 14 hits and two home runs. He walked 12 times against eight strikeouts. The majors unsurprisingly posed a bit more challenging, particularly while playing with the weight of an 0-for-13 start before his first hit and a 1-for-33 line before his second.
“Do I like the way that this has gone in April, totally? No,” Elias said. “And I feel responsible for that. But it’s possible, just like it was for Grayson [Rodriguez] or Colton Cowser and any these guys, that this was sort of a necessary development episode to be exposed to this before you’re fully ready for it. And now, the work that you put in, you kind of know exactly what you need to do when you get back up there and that’s valuable. So, it comes at a cost to get that negative feedback but it’s valuable and I guarantee Jackson’s going to channel that well.”
Holliday received ‘very intense, very specific’ feedback
Hyde, more than anything, said he was impressed with the way Holliday handled himself amid a disheartening stretch. He admired how Holliday “handled tough at-bats, how he stayed engaged defensively, how you couldn’t tell he was down in any way.”
With the plate struggles came feedback. Elias kept specifics of “very intense, very specific” feedback private. He called this “a little hiccup,” possibly Holliday’s first real baseball hiccup. Hyde added that Holliday heading to Norfolk would alleviate the weight hanging over the youngster’s shoulders with each plate appearance.
“This game up here, people attack your weaknesses until you stop showing them to be weaknesses, and he kind of knows what that attack looks like right now,” Elias said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to concentrate his work on those areas. … He’s a brilliant talent and a very sharp kid. I expect he’s gonna go and correct those adjustments really quickly, but we felt steady playing time in Triple-A was the place for that, for a number of different reasons.”
The first being the Orioles’ expected run of matchups against left-handed hitters, and another the tight race with the New York Yankees atop the American League East.
“It’s just not an optimal place to be doing player development [for] a kid like him,” Elias said.
Elias and Hyde are more confident in Holliday’s future
To find examples around the Orioles clubhouse of promotions to The Show with subpar starts, options back to the Triple-A and recalls that have panned out, Holliday won’t have to look far. It happened to Rodriguez. It happened to Cowser.
Is the Orioles’ brass confident in Holliday’s future because of that trend?
“100%,” Elias said.”And perhaps more so with just the way he handled himself through this and learning second base really quickly on the fly. I couldn’t be more excited about him as an Oriole. And then also as a talent that anybody who’s a fan of the sport is going to be able to watch. So, he’s got an extremely bright future. We just need to polish up some things for a 20-year-old.”
“I admire how he’s so mature, even though he looks — he’s so young,” Hyde said. “You forget that sometimes because he’s so talented. How he’s handled everything has been incredible.”
Holliday handled the move well
There was a long conversation Friday about the move that Elias said Holliday handled “really, really well.” Whether the news came as a surprise, he wasn’t sure.
“He’s got a growth mindset,” Elias said, “meaning that he’s gonna kind of focus on what he wants to do differently and what he wants to do to be better. I doubt he’s looking in the rearview mirror too much. He took it very well. He’s gonna respond excellently and I hope he’s back up here really soon.
“Ultimately, it’s not the end of the world and it’s temporary and if this was something that was –– who knows if this was like necessary, a necessary step or not in his development. I don’t really know. But ideally, they come up and stay but this happens more often than not –– really, really good players, Hall of Fame-caliber players in the last 25 years have had the same thing happened and it’s kind of par for the course and it’s a little more surprising nowadays when it doesn’t happen.
“So, it’s definitely not easy on anyone involved but we really need to keep our perspective here and this is just a very temporary bump in the road, is my estimation.”
Holliday makes way for McKenna
Part of Elias’ thinking with the move was the expectation that the Orioles will be seeing a string of lefties in the coming weeks. That means Holliday might see more time on the bench during such an important developmental period.
“I just want to see him go play,” Hyde said. “I think there’s some adjustments from the offensive side that guys are going to be in constant everyday contact with — our great minor league staff down there and our hitting guys. I want to see him go play more second base. I want to see him go take at-bats. For me, that’s the most important thing for me right now.”
McKenna reported to Baltimore on Friday to replace Holliday. The 27-year-old outfielder spent his first 12 games of the season in Norfolk, tallying 11 hits and two homers in 45 at-bats. The decision to promote him came on the heels of Austin Hays joining the 10-day injured list earlier this week.
McKenna, a career .221 hitter with a .617 OPS in parts of three major league seasons, brings a strong defensive profile and an extra right-handed bat, according to Elias. Hyde called it a “luxury” to have veteran infielders Jorge Mateo and Ramón Urías to “fit right into our lineup.”
“I think the way that the competitive state influences this dynamic is we have other really good infielders on this roster,” Elias said. “And it’s not easy to be better than those guys. We’re trying to win every game that we possibly can. So in terms of putting out our best options on a nightly basis, [Holliday has] competition because this is a good team.
“The bottom line, to me, is Jackson is way ahead of the curve.”