After A Dreadful 2 For 34 Start To His Career, The Number One Prospect In Baseball Jackson Holliday Has Been Sent Back Down To AAA
It's no secret that #1 prospect Jackson Holliday has been struggling with the big league club since his promotion. A 2 for 34 start isn't how you envision your first few games going, but this isn't the first time a big prospect has come up and struggled out of the gates. The Orioles have decided to send him back to AAA for a little more seasoning.
It's been a funny life cycle to experience with Jackson so far. At first a lot of us were mad and upset that he didn't make the team out of camp. Then when he came up people said it was about time. Then they said almost immediately that he needed more time in AAA. Now we're all mad that he's sent down again. The on-going thought process of a fan, gotta love it.
It sucks but this is probably the right move. Again he was batting .059, scored 5 runs, had one single RBI, wasn't drawing any walks and had an OPS of .170. He was sitting against lefties and looked overmatched at times against righties, so obviously something needed to be done. His swing and miss numbers were crazy, it was a mess. Just couldn't find his rhythm and timing. Happens to a lot of guys though, especially his age. Instead of running him out there everyday and risking him going 2-60 and embarrassing himself any further, they're sending him back down to boost his confidence.
I thought since the team was winning and he wasn't costing them games they would keep him up and let him see this thing through. People forget that Adley Rutschman struggled, Gunnar Henderson struggled, Colton Cowser struggled, Grayson Rodriguez, Mike Trout struggled, Alex Bregman struggled too. Now they weren't 2-34 bad, but they did not succeed immediately.
That happens when you're 20 years-old.
That's the other thing to think about. He's 20! It's normal for guys his age to struggle in AAA. Just getting there at 20 is remarkable in itself, but again it's not a shock that he came up and was not finding success up here. That is what happens when you're as young as he is. He's too good to struggle for long though, no doubt he'll bounce back like Adley, Gunnar, Colton and Grayson did.
He'll go to Norfolk, get a reset and be back later. I don't expect it to be months before he's back but they definitely have to figure something out with his swing. At times he looked so lost. Maybe his leg kick isn't meant for the big leagues and boy oh boy is it hard to make that adjustment on the fly while your team is trying to make a case for the best team in baseball. It sucks but it isn't a shock to anyone who has watched. The defense was fine, this seems strictly like an offensive issue. Go down, reset, get some pressure off you and come back after taking some deep breathes. He'll be fine, 20 year olds struggle, we know that. Excited to see the results when he comes back. If the Orioles were this good when Jackson was bad, how good can they be if he's producing? Guess we'll find out. Make your jokes now though, because he's going to find it and you're all in trouble.