Mike Elias promises no shenanigans when it comes to if Jackson Holliday will make Baltimore’s roster to open the season.
The Orioles general manager cites that it was the club’s intention to begin the 2022 season with Adley Rutschman on the major league roster before he incurred a strained triceps muscle that delayed his debut by seven-plus weeks. And that was with Baltimore coming off a 110-loss season.
So there was no attempt at service manipulation then, Elias insisted, and there will not be any holding back Holliday for any reason except if the organization believes more seasoning is necessary for a 20-year-old infielder with 145 games of minor league experience, including 18 at Triple-A.
“We do not do that [service manipulation],” Elias said. “Look at our handling of some of our big prospects, we haven’t done that. And the other element now is we’re trying to repeat [as division champs]. We won [101] games last year. For us, it is ‘go’ time.
“We’re going to put the best team on the field. We’re not going to do it if we feel like it’s going to damage [Holliday’s] long-term development. Putting the best team on the field is even more of a priority now than it was when we brought Adley and Gunnar [Henderson, 2023 AL Rookie of the Year] up.”
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said, “We’re going to give him every chance to win a major league job.”
It is one of the big storylines of this spring: Can Holliday come this far this fast? It is uncommon for drafted high school position players— so not international players who sign even younger — to be as young and inexperienced as Holliday and reach the majors.
But the son of former MLB star Matt Holliday, in his first full minor league season after being drafted first overall in July 2022, climbed last year from Low-A to High-A to Double-A to Triple-A, hitting .323 with a .442 on-base percentage and a .941 OPS, and did it with such upside that the Orioles — readying for their first postseason since 2016 — considered putting him on their playoff roster before his 20th birthday.
“You just don’t see someone progress through all the minor leagues as quickly as an American high school teenager,” Elias said. “You really have to go back to the late ’80s or early ’90s for guys like Gary Sheffield, Gregg Jefferies, [Ken] Griffey [Jr.], A-Rod [Alex Rodriguez]. You will find it with international players, but they have been pros for a few years like Juan Soto [who was 19 years, 207 days old when he debuted].”
Perhaps the most recent close equivalent to what Holliday is trying to do — he would be 20 years and 87 days old on the March 28 Orioles opener — is another Baltimore infielder. Manny Machado was drafted third overall in 2010. He played 219 minor league games, none at Triple-A and made his debut at age 20 years and 34 days — but that was August 2012, so with the season already well underway.
For Baltimore, the lefty-swinging Henderson will play shortstop. Righties Jorge Mateo, Ramon Urias and Jordan Westburg can cover second and third. As Elias said, “There’s playing time available for a left-handed hitting infielder.” For Holliday, that would mainly mean second if he is with the Orioles to begin the schedule.
“I think he is going to be impressive [in spring training],” Elias said. “We’re going to make a baseball valuation with our eyes and our coaches and some of his performance, and then also what our alternatives are. He’s in camp to try to make the team. Brandon’s going to put him in every position to do so. He has not spent very much time at Triple-A, and if he goes back — regardless of how he does in spring — I do not think it would be a waste of his time. So there’s always that. So we will weigh that against whether he should be on our team on Opening Day.”
Skip Schumaker won NL Manager of the Year for piloting the not-expected-to-do-much Marlins to their first postseason berth in a 162-game season since winning the 2003 World Series.
But Miami has not done much this offseason, though sources say it would be surprising if the Marlins do not sign either Tim Anderson or Adalberto Mondesi to play shortstop, as The Athletic first reported. The Marlins know Jon Berti is more a utilityman than shortstop, especially having turned 34 in January. Also Miami will be without ace Sandy Alcantara all year after he underwent Tommy John surgery last October.
And the 84-win Marlins reside in a division in which it finished 20 games behind the Braves and six behind the Phillies — organizations that are returning all their best players plus augmented in the offseason. Plus, though the Marlins were nine games ahead of the Mets, Schumaker is a bigger fan of David Stearns’ work than the average New York sports radio caller.
“They’ve had a great offseason,” Schumaker said. “The rotation additions are good. I like [Luis] Severino and a few other guys for bounceback years. I was in the same division [NL Central as a Cardinals coach in 2022] and saw ([then-Brewer Adrian] Houser. He has heavy sink. He’s good. They are getting Edwin Diaz to return for the back end. Don’t forget that. He’s the best closer in the big leagues. They have a few MVP-caliber hitters in the middle of the lineup. I think they’ve had a fantastic offseason.”
On one hand you could call the Blue Jays’ rotation one of the success stories of the 2023 season. They had four pitchers — Chris Bassitt, Jose Berrios, Kevin Gausman and Yusei Kikuchi — make at least 30 starts and have an ERA-plus of 110 or better. The only other team that has done that since 2013 was the 2018 Astros with Gerrit Cole, Dallas Keuchel, Charlie Morton and Justin Verlander.
Yet the 2023 Blue Jays rotation was not a full success story. That is because one of the biggest failures of the season came in its midst. Alek Manoah went from finishing third in the AL Cy Young vote in 2022 to a 5.87 ERA in 19 starts last year, which included a couple of minor league demotions.
Manoah reported to this camp in better physical shape, according to manager John Schneider, and, at least equally important, a better frame of mind. In what is again supposed to be a competitive AL East race, getting Manoah closer to his 2022 version will be vital for Toronto, even if it is intrigued by prospect Ricky Tiedemann and free-agent addition Yariel Rodriguez, who is being stretched out as a starter.
“We have the version of Alek that we were accustomed to seeing before last year,” Schneider said. “He tackled his offseason like we thought he would and hoped he would. He’s in tremendous shape. I’ve seen him throw, and it looks normal, like him. We are talking about a guy who gave us almost 200 innings two years ago, third in the Cy Young, a two-something ERA [2.24]. It’s pretty elite stuff. Not really having that last year consistently was a big blow to us. We did the best we could to bridge the gap.”
