Kyle Goon: Jackson Holliday enters Aberdeen, the school of hard knocks for Orioles sluggers, determined to move on quickly

ABERDEEN – Less than 10 months after he was drafted No. 1 overall, Jackson Holliday arrived in Maryland on Tuesday afternoon, a tantalizing 34 miles up the road from Camden Yards.

In some ways, he was in awe: The 19 year-old uttered aloud how he needed to snag a jersey for his younger brother Ethan when he first noticed the rack of orange T-shirts with his name on them. But for the fans, he was the attraction: With an hour to go before first pitch, hundreds of them started to lean over the first base wall at Ripken Stadium, staking out for a glimpse of Baseball America’s No. 7 prospect as of this week. The attendance easily outpaced an average school night.

But any prospect — especially one of Holliday’s stature — is already thinking one step ahead. Is Holliday happy to be here?

Sure.

Kinda.

“Just trying to get out of here as fast as possible now,” Holliday said. “That’s the new goal.”

Not so fast. Many top prospects have found themselves unexpectedly stalled in Aberdeen.

Ripken Stadium is known within the organization as a place where hitters hit a wall — or at least see their long drives fall short of that wall, a distant 404 feet away in the gaps. The field is covered in turf, including the base paths and the warning track: If you slide, be prepared for carpet burns. It’s a particularly unpleasant surface to stand on when the summer heat settles in.

The Orioles promote prospects aggressively in the their system — Holliday had just 65 plate appearances in Delmarva before being called up last month — to see how they respond to more challenging competition. And even in the Orioles’ clubhouse now, big-leaguers can recall well how challenging Aberdeen was at that early juncture of their careers, offering hard-won lessons that forced them to adapt.

The lowest average Gunnar Henderson had at any level through his minor league trek was .231 for the IronBirds in 2021. He remembered a teammate who knocked a ball hard, 107 mph off the bat with a good angle, that sailed out to center … for a ground-rule double.

“And I was like, ‘Good grief, man,’” Henderson said. “Whaddya got to do to hit one outta here?’”

It’s a common refrain. Unless you’re a pull hitter who can smack it down the line at 310 feet, it’s a hard place to go yard. Aberdeen manager Roberto Mercado has only seen a few homers to center in his year-and-a-half tenure: “You don’t see balls come out that often.”

Maybe it’s the legacy of having an All-Star dad. Maybe it’s the confidence that flows from spring training mixing with the big leaguers in Florida. But Holliday (batting .310 with a .431 OBP in 11 games with the IronBirds) sounded completely undaunted by the pitchers’ park — which has seen a number of the Orioles’ best young players struggle — when he met with the media prior to his first live at bats there.

A stop like Aberdeen hardly seems to him like a place to break his brisk stride.

“I’m kinda looking at it as there’s a lot of space for hits, right?” he said. “So I’m not looking at it as a negative. I mean, home runs will happen. It’s not really one of those things that you can force. Just try to get my doubles and triples and go from there.”

Sure enough in his first at-bat on Tuesday night, Jackson shot a ground ball past the Hudson Valley second baseman for a single. A minute later, he was stealing his first base, sliding headfirst on the red-and-black turf.

Cedric Mullins carried a similarly unfazed attitude during his Aberdeen stint back in 2015, when it was still a short-season low-A team. He hit .264 in 309 plate appearances and slugged just .376. But since he was never known as a power hitter, not showcasing power didn’t faze him. He showcased his defensive prowess in the outfield, and he stole 17 bases in just 68 games.

“The bigger the field, you have the speed to cover it,” Mullins said. “Just makes your life a little easier in that aspect, just being able to cover some ground.”

Ultimately, that’s what the minors is really about: Making the best of what you’ve got, and showcasing your talents. While acknowledging Aberdeen was a hard park to hit out of, Ryan McKenna believes the hitting struggles many prospects find there have as much to do with teenagers and early 20-somethings trying to get stronger physically and mentally.

“I think when you’re young, you’re still trying to figure out how to make your way,” he said. “You’re still trying to figure out how to get along with your teammates for a full year. There’s a lot of progression that happens with those young years in your professional career.”

Perhaps no one has a greater appreciation for that process, and Aberdeen’s role in it, than Kyle Stowers. The outfielder had a forgettable batting stretch there in 2019, with a .216/.289/.377 line.

After the COVID-19 pandemic forced a 2020 interlude, Stowers found himself in Aberdeen again, a little older and a little more confident. His performance improved to .275/.404/.496, arming him with a powerful sense of how much he had grown since his first IronBirds stint.

To this day, he thinks of Aberdeen as the place where he was forced to learn the most as a pro.

“I got to reflect on why I play and what I want to accomplish, and what process, and how I want to achieve what I want to achieve, and what terms I’m willing to fail under,” he said. “So those two things, being stronger and revamping my ‘why,’ was part of it for me.”

Brushing through that step might seem impulsive for the baby-faced Holliday. But he also has no compunction about eschewing all the cliches around taking it “day by day.”

He’s here to let it rip.

In his last at-bat on a 2 for 5 debut at Ripken Stadium, Holliday whipped around on an eighth-inning fastball and sent it careening into the night, right over the 404-foot mark painted on the right-center wall.

“I was looking to hit a home run, to be honest,” he said later. “I missed some pitches earlier in the night, kinda hit some soft ground balls to second. So I was looking for a fastball that I can honestly do that [hit a home run] with.”

If he keeps up the red-hot start to his career, his high-speed ascendency might continue: He wants to be up in AA Bowie by season’s end, keeping on track to get to the majors in short order. While he appreciated the advice he got from former No. 1 prospects Henderson and Adley Rutschman in spring training, he’s mostly focused on earning the chance to have them as teammates again.

“I feel like I belong there,” he said. “And I’m really excited to be up there in …

His voice trailed off, then he smiled and shrugged.

“… who knows how long.”

kyle.goon@thebaltimorebanner.com

Kyle Goon

kyle.goon@thebaltimorebanner.com

Kyle joined The Baltimore Banner in 2023 as a sports columnist. He previously covered the L.A. Lakers for The Orange County Register and myriad sports at The Salt Lake Tribune. He’s a Mt. Hebron High and University of Maryland alum.

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