There’s perhaps no one better equipped to handle praise than Jackson Holliday, who for going on two years now as a No. 1 overall draft pick and both the Orioles’ and the game’s top prospect hasn’t exactly needed to fish for compliments.

And yet, as he neared his return to the Orioles this summer at Triple-A Norfolk, they came increasingly frequently.

“Bro, you’re looking jacked today,” Holliday would hear, and he’d respond “thank you” through a grin that betrayed some pride, some bemusement and some humility.

“Maybe I’m just growing up,” the 20-year-old Holliday joked. And that may be true. But the reality is the unfortunate circumstance of an injured list trip in Norfolk set off what the Orioles view as unprecedented in-season strength gains for their top prospect, the benefits of which are on display in a powerful return to the Orioles’ lineup this month.

Baseball is an attritional sport. All spring and summer long, players often lose weight and go into maintenance mode just to finish the season. Holliday went in the other direction, adding strength and speed that have helped make this round with the Orioles much more productive.

“I had a lot more time to just kind of focus on lifting and trying to get stronger so I could come back in the best shape that I can be,” Holliday said. “I think that was good, a blessing kind of in disguise. I could just work out and focus on taking care of myself.”

Holliday was sent down with not only some swing adjustments to make after he was demoted to Norfolk in late April, including shortening up some of his moves and widening his base to allow him to be in better hitting positions to combat major league velocity and maintain his adjustability for spin. There was a strength component, too, and as part of his typical workweek, Holliday would get a pair of quick lifts in around his pregame work and on-field responsibilities. Sometimes, they’d squeeze in a third — which is typical of a minor leaguer at any level.

Then Holliday landed on Norfolk’s injured list with right elbow inflammation on June 14, and the Orioles’ strength and conditioning department noticed a unique chance to do more than just help Holliday get back to full health.

“You never want someone to be hurting, but it was clear there was a big opportunity here,” Norfolk strength and conditioning coach Jon Medici said.

Nick White, the Orioles’ head of strength and conditioning, said the work began with getting the medical department onboard. Holliday required concentrated work on his scapula and rotator cuff area to take stress off his elbow and help his shoulder and arm work together. He estimated that 85% of Holliday’s work, however, was focused on his lower body.

There was plenty of time for it. He spent nearly two weeks on the injured list and returned on June 25 for three weeks as a designated hitter. After the All-Star break, he was back at second base but playing shortened games to ease back in on defense.

“I was able to work out after games — I played my five or my seven innings that I had on defense, then I would go and lift and just try to take advantage of all the time that I could,” Holliday said.

Medici said, during that rehab period, Holliday got as many as four lifts per week in. They had a model candidate to try a program like this, because the strength and conditioning department echoes many others in the organization in praising Holliday’s dedication and work ethic. Holliday embraced the prescription for lifts that White described as “considerably longer, more intense” sessions than players often have in season.

“He has a good BS meter,” White said. “And he also has, “OK, I absolutely feel that, let’s go.’ That’s it. It’s just full tilt until there’s a new plan.”

Medici was overseeing the work on a daily basis and appreciated how Holliday would quickly absorb new goals and incorporate them into his plan. The outcomes from the concentrated two months of work he ultimately had proved to be staggering to the Orioles’ staff. Holliday worked on his diet with Cheryl Zonkowski, the Tides’ nutritionist, to refine his diet to ensure he had enough protein to add strength and carbs to recover from the workouts. The resulting gain of eight to 10 pounds showed on a basic level that their plan worked.

In the Orioles’ measurement of power — which Medici described as “how quickly you can produce force,” Holliday increased his levels by 10%. His in-season max in lower-body strength jumped 25%. White and Medici believe Holliday could have accomplished some of these goals by the end of the season without this rehab period accelerating things, though certainly not to this degree.

“Those are things that are impossible in season,” White said.

They also tried to keep Holliday running as much as possible — and more quickly when he did.

“We were really able to take advantage of some of this time to train speed,” Medici said. He said Holliday “takes a lot of pride” in his speed, constantly asking how fast he went on a certain run between bases or how quickly he scored from second. When he got back up to the majors, he reached 30 feet per second — which is considered elite speed — for the first time.

“As we got closer to him returning fully to play, right before he went up, a large amount of the guys that saw him every day kind of knew, ‘Wow, he’s put on some strength. He’s put on some mass, and he looks pretty good right now.’”

Jon Medici, Norfolk strength and conditioning coach

It’s one thing to add strength and another to demonstrate it on the field, though. Sherman Johnson, the Orioles’ upper-level hitting coordinator, was with Norfolk for a few weeks after Holliday’s demotion to help him make the necessary adjustments and was impressed with how he got back to work. When Johnson saw the Tides again in early July in Norfolk, he was thrilled with the work that manager Buck Britton and hitting coach Mike Montville had done to guide Holliday’s swing and couldn’t help but notice how much bigger Holliday was.

“And then, that day in BP, he was hitting home runs, and it wasn’t just, ‘Oh, that was a nice swing.’” Johnson said. “He had a couple rounds in a row where it was homer, homer, homer, and they weren’t just wall scrapers. They were 10 rows back. … Buck Britton was like, ‘Yeah, man, he’s definitely bigger, and he’s been hitting the ball for a little bit like that now in BP.’ That was awesome to see.”

Eventually, that strength started showing up in games. It didn’t help that Holliday was walking in 20.8% of his plate appearances after he was activated from the injured list, though no one much minded that. Before long, Holliday’s hard-hit rate was climbing — and quickly.

“We see a lot of guys who might gain that 10% of power like we were talking about, but it takes a couple months for it to appear in the exit velocity or the bat speed,” White said. “I think, because of the specific work Jackson was doing and the feel he has with his body, he was able to put all of that together and, as we were seeing performance gains, it was like a week or two, not months, before he saw that performance in the box.”

As Holliday’s eventual recall grew near, it was obvious to everyone in Norfolk how the work had taken hold. Medici often welcomed Holliday into the weight room with a comment on how big he was looking; Holliday would find a mirror to verify it. White joked with him that he’d need to do some offseason jean shopping to fit his new frame.

Medici said: “As we got closer to him returning fully to play, right before he went up, a large amount of the guys that saw him every day kind of knew, ‘Wow, he’s put on some strength. He’s put on some mass, and he looks pretty good right now.’”

It took all of one day back in the majors for the world to see that. Holliday turned on a slider over the plate and hit it 109.2 mph off the bat onto Eutaw Street for a grand slam, the hardest-hit ball of his professional career. His average exit velocity was 87.3 mph in his April stint with the Orioles and is up to 89.6 mph since his return, with a 48% hard-hit rate compared to a 37.5% hard-hit rate in April.

All of the stakeholders credit Holliday for absorbing a series of proverbial body blows — the first real struggles of his baseball career coming on the major league stage and the ensuing demotion, followed not long thereafter by an injury — and not missing a step.

“I’ve seen that absolutely crush players and take a full year to come back from,” White said, “But, Jackson being process oriented, and having more confidence in his process than his ability, is what makes Jackson special to me.”