O's Mike Elias on Jackson Holliday's promotion (plus other O's notes)

He just turned 19 in December and in 33 career pro baseball games, shortstop Jackson Holliday is batting .339/.503/.530/.1.033 with 11 doubles, a triple, three homers and 24 RBIs. There have been few, really no struggles, for Holliday yet on the Orioles' watch.

But if he doesn’t tear it up initially as he now moves up from Low Single-A Delmarva to High-A Aberdeen, he will be keeping good company. Gunnar Henderson started 1-for-31 his first 11 games at Aberdeen in the 2021 season and last season Heston Kjerstad hit .233 with an OPS of .674 at Aberdeen in 43 games.

Those stats for both were modest but it didn't keep them from advancing in their careers.

Now the player that the O’s drafted No. 1 overall last summer, a player ranked as baseball’s No. 10 prospect by MLBPipeline.com and No. 13 by Baseball America, will play his first IronBirds game tonight when Aberdeen plays at Wilmington. His home debut is to come May 9 at Ripken Stadium.

On my WBAL Radio O’s postgame show last night, Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias joined me to talk about Holliday’s promotion.

“We are careful about promotions,” said Elias. “We want to make sure someone is prepared for a level when they go up, but we also want to make sure our players are appropriately challenged too. So, kind of striking that balance, we decided to move him after these first few games at Delmarva. Aberdeen, and the league that we are in there at High-A, are historically kind of a challenging hitting environment, so we expect he may struggle a bit. But it will be a good experience for him if that happens.” 

Elias said since MLB reorganized the minors and cut out short-season ball, there are more young players in Low-A ball and some of them have growing pains when they move up.

The Orioles have seen players move three levels in recent seasons. Henderson in 2021 began at Delmarva, moved to Aberdeen and ended the year playing a few games at Double-A Bowie. Colton Cowser last season began the season with Aberdeen, moved to Bowie and ended the 2022 year by playing 27 games for Triple-A Norfolk.

So, could Bowie be in Holliday’s future - could he play at three levels this season?

“Hey, it’s April and he has a lot of time left,” Elias said. “We’ll just base it on his performance, and we’ll do whatever his performance and development dictate. If that means this is the last level (for this year) great. If that means two (more) levels, even better. When those guys did it a lot of it was playing catchup from the lost pandemic season. For Jackson, he was just drafted and we’re very proud of him that he is in High-A already, it's only been 10 months or so since we drafted him.”

While Holliday hit .392/.523/.667/1.190, going 20-for-51 in 13 games this year for Delmarva, surely there are things the Orioles see beyond a stat where he could still improve his game.

“Well, he’s 19 and the tool that probably has the most room for improvement would be his power," said Elias. "And I think that is the easier thing to bet on when you are talking about a young kid that is not done growing or physically mature yet. He is years away from his physical peak strength, so I think the best is yet to come in the power department.”

Elias said while he expects Holliday to get “the lion’s share” of starts for Aberdeen at shortstop, Aberdeen will still find time for Frederick Bencosme at short and Holliday will be playing some still at second base.

If Holliday doesn’t tear it up to from the jump with Aberdeen, the O’s organization is fine with that. They love what this kid is doing since the 2022 draft.

“We’re totally braced for it,” said Elias. “He hasn’t struggled in pro ball yet and he’s going to be one of the youngest players in a tough league. So, I would be surprised if he doesn’t have some lumps out of the gate. We’re totally braced for it and it’s part of the experience.”

The win streak is still on: The Orioles had a 10-game win streak last July and their latest winning run has reached seven games after yet another one-run win. The Orioles beat Boston 5-4 Monday night, their second straight win by a single run, their third in their past four wins and fourth by that margin in the last six victories.

The Orioles did not strike out in the game for the first time since Aug. 8, 2010, versus the Chicago White Sox. In fact, the Orioles swung and missed just four times on 65 swings in the game.

The Orioles improved to 8-0 in series-opening games and to 8-3 with five straight wins at home.

They have scored 28 runs on 51 hits in four games against Boston in 2023, going 2-2.

The Birds bullpen threw 3 1/3 scoreless with right-hander Yennier Canó picking up his first major league save. He has thrown seven hitless and scoreless innings and has retired all 20 batters he has faced since his callup this year. The O's pen has allowed just five earned runs the last 10 games and 34 2/3 innings for an ERA of 1.30.

At 15-7, the Orioles are in second place in the AL East with the second-best record in the American League behind Tampa Bay's 20-3. They have the third-best record in MLB behind only the Rays and Pittsburgh Pirates. 

At their current .682-win percentage, they would record 110 wins this season if maintaining that win percentage.