Someday in the near future, Jackson Holliday just may vault to the very top of the MLB Pipeline prospect rankings.
The current No. 10 prospect in baseball and No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 Draft started making his case Friday night with a 4-for-5, four-RBI outing in Single-A Delmarva's 15-8 extra-inning win over host Salem.
The son of former Major League Baseball star Matt Holliday, the Orioles' No. 2 prospect has done nothing except hit since he was drafted. After scoring eight runs and posting a 130 wRC+ in 12 games of Single-A ball last year, Holliday hasn’t cooled down in the slightest so far this season.
Even so, the 19-year-old hadn't yet amassed a four-hit game in his fledgling professional career, and he showcased a good eye by drawing a walk as well.
This is the same phenom who compiled a slash line of .409/.576/.591 with a 1.167 OPS last year in the Rookie-level Florida Complex League. Coming around to score six times in his first eight games definitely hinted at Holliday's offensive promise early on.
Batting in the No. 2 spot in the Shorebirds lineup, he started off Friday with a bloop single into short-center field. Holliday drew his free pass with the bases loaded in the second and beat out a ground ball to second base five innings later. In the eighth, he lined his second double of the season to left.
Holliday's fourth hit came in the top of the 10th, when he put the Shorebirds ahead with an opposite-field single that drove in two. After that clutch hit, Delmarva added six more runs, including a homer by No. 11 prospect Samuel Basallo that plated Holliday.
The former Gatorade Oklahoma High School Player of the Year also found his glove again after an error in his last performance, deftly handling two putouts at short.
The No. 1 farm system in baseball doesn’t appear to be slowing down at all, and even when former top prospects such as Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson have been called up to the big leagues, the O’s haven't failed to find their next face of the future. Holliday's swift adjustment to the pro game already has him standing out amid the high volume of top-flight shortstop prospects around the game.