As the one-year anniversary of his selection atop the 2022 draft approaches, top Orioles prospect Jackson Holliday is heading to the Double-A. He’ll replace another of Baltimore’s best minor leaguers in Bowie’s lineup.
In addition to promoting Holliday, a 19-year-old shortstop, to Double-A, the organization is sending third baseman Coby Mayo and right-hander Chayce McDermott from Bowie to Triple-A Norfolk, a source with knowledge of the organization’s plans confirmed to The Baltimore Sun. The moves come the same day the Orioles added another well-regarded prospect to their system, drafting Vanderbilt outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. 17th overall in the first round Sunday night.
By sending Mayo — a 21-year-old who Baseball America ranks as Baltimore’s No. 9 prospect — to Norfolk, the Orioles add to a Tides lineup that lost infielder Jordan Westburg and outfielder Colton Cowser after they were promoted to the majors in recent weeks. They replace him in Bowie with Holliday, a sign of the system’s depth.
Holliday will be the fourth player in his age-19 season or earlier to appear in the upper minors this season, according to FanGraphs. Beginning with the 2013 season, 14 position players at that stage of their careers have received at least 100 plate appearances in Double-A, and only two entered professional baseball via the amateur draft rather than as international free agent signings.
The son of seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday, Holliday hit .314 with five home runs and a .940 OPS for High-A Aberdeen after being promoted in late April. Between the IronBirds and Low-A Delmarva, Holliday, a left-handed hitter, has slashed .331/.466/.523 in his first full professional season.
In Baseball America’s latest prospect rankings, Holliday was deemed the sport’s second-best prospect, trailing only Cincinnati Reds infielder Elly De La Cruz, though Holliday topped him on MLB Pipeline’s list. With De La Cruz expected to graduate from prospect status before this winter, Holliday is well positioned to follow Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman and infielder Gunnar Henderson as Baltimore’s third straight No. 1 prospect in Baseball America’s offseason rankings.
Since the publication began ranking prospects leading into the 1990 campaign, no organization has had the No. 1 overall prospect entering three straight seasons, even in cases in which one player topped the list two years in a row. This winter, the Orioles joined the St. Louis Cardinals (1999 and 2000) as the only teams to have different players atop consecutive Baseball America offseason rankings. With Rutschman the first overall pick in 2019 and Henderson being Baltimore’s second-round selection that year, the Orioles became the only team to have two players from the same draft class consecutively be named baseball’s top prospect.
Three years later, they selected Holliday first overall from a crop of talented high school position players. With his senior season at Stillwater High School in Oklahoma, Holliday skyrocketed up draft boards, showing improved strength and approach from the previous summer. He wasn’t viewed as the draft’s unanimous top player available, but he offered a five-tool package that, paired with his rapid growth, Baltimore couldn’t resist. The Orioles signed him to a bonus of $8.19 million, a record for both the franchise and a high school draftee.
He has rewarded that selection and investment over the past year. After impressing in a stint with Delmarva to close his draft year, Holliday shined as a nonroster invitee to the Orioles’ big league spring training. In 16 games against advanced competition, Holliday hit .429 with a 1.056 OPS, stealing two bases without being caught while walking four times against four strikeouts.
“I feel like this is somewhere that I belong, and that’s that,” Holliday told The Baltimore Sun in March. “I don’t feel like a 19-year-old.”
He continued to play well above his age once the regular season began. Holliday reached base at least once in each of his first 40 games, batting .390 with an on-base percentage above .500. Although his performance eventually slowed with Aberdeen, he still managed to thrive at a level many of Baltimore’s other recent top prospects, including Henderson, struggled at.
This year at Bowie, Mayo hit .310 with 17 home runs and a 1.036 OPS. He was named the Eastern League’s and the Orioles’ minor league Player of the Month for June after batting .340 with eight home runs in the month. Mayo, Baltimore’s fourth-round pick in the 2020 draft, joins outfielder/first baseman Heston Kjerstad and infielder César Prieto as notable hitting prospects who have gone from Bowie to Norfolk this year.
McDermott, 24, was one of two pitchers the Orioles acquired last August in the three-team trade that sent Trey Mancini to the Houston Astros. In 16 outings (14 starts) for Bowie, McDermott posted a 3.56 ERA over 68 1/3 innings, striking out 88 batters. Baseball America ranks him as the Orioles’ No. 15 prospect, fourth among pitchers behind Grayson Rodriguez, DL Hall and Cade Povich. Right-hander Seth Johnson, recovering from Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery after being acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays in the Mancini trade, is the organization’s No. 17 prospect.
Mayo and McDermott join one of the minors’ best teams and are now possibly positioned to help one of the majors’. Holding the American League’s second-best record at the All-Star break, the Orioles are chasing their first playoff berth since 2016 after being one of the majors’ worst teams each year from 2018 to 2021. Baltimore’s 52-110 record in 2021 resulted in the top draft pick in 2022 and, thus, Holliday. On the same day another draft began, he reached Double-A, and the Orioles wrapped up their best first half since 1997.
MASNSports.com was first to report the promotions.
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