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BOSTON — Jackson Holliday is excited. He’s a bit sleep-deprived too, after driving from Norfolk to Richmond, Viginia, at 1 a.m. to make a 6 a.m. flight to Boston on no caffeine.
But nervous? Nah. He’s been prepping for his MLB debut his entire life. Holliday, the No. 1 prospect, will play second base and bat ninth as the Orioles play the Red Sox on Wednesday night.
It helps, of course, that he grew up in major league clubhouses and has been to Fenway Park before. He knows the walk from the tiny visitor’s clubhouse up the long flight of wooden stairs that leads to the field. He’s taken grounders on the field at Fenway Park as a kid, witnessed the harshness of the crowd to visitors as his dad played in World Series games. He’s even been in the Green Monster before and already signed the famous walls with his younger brother, Ethan, back in the day.
The only thing that’s new? This time he’ll be the one playing on the field.
“I think it’ll be fun,” he said. “I’m just going to try to hit the fastball right back where it came from. It’s different. It’s a lot. But I feel like I was born to handle that and to play baseball.”
Holliday, only 20 years old, was drafted first overall in 2022. He quickly climbed the Orioles minor league system and entered camp with a chance to make the team. They instead sent him down to start the season to get more experience against left-handed pitching and more time at second base.
But, after watching his every movement with the Tides on video, the Orioles thought 10 games was enough. They were past their stretch of facing five left-handed starters in nine games, and Holliday, manager Brandon Hyde said, had shown enough to get the call. Holliday hit .333 with two home runs.
“He played really well, took really good at-bats. We watched all of them,” Hyde said. “We just felt at this point, at this time, he’s ready to come up.”
So on Tuesday night, after Norfolk played Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Holliday was called into manager Buck Britton’s office. Holliday had a feeling what was coming, but he racked his brain just in case to try to recall any instances when he may have messed up.
“I didn’t think I did anything wrong,” Holliday said.
Britton went about his speech, Holliday sitting across from him anticipating and crossing his fingers he would hear the news he had always dreamed of.
Finally, it came. He did as he was instructed and went to call his dad, who was eating dinner after Holliday’s younger brother Ethan’s baseball game.
“I thought wow, he’s calling me pretty quick after the game,” Matt Holliday said. “And he doesn’t show a ton of emotion. He said, ‘I’m going up’ and was like ‘Oh, great.’ It was great. He’s pretty steady so he wasn’t overly loud, but I could tell how excited he was.”
Next came the mad rush to get everyone to Boston. Jackson Holliday and his wife, Chloe, sprinted to pack up their apartment in Norfolk. They packed the car, dropped their puppy, Coconut, off at Kyle Stowers’ house and hit the road to Richmond. They arrived at 1:30 a.m. and woke several hours later to catch their flight.
Matt, Ethan and the rest of the family had to fly private from Oklahoma to Boston to make it on time.
“It’s been quite a day, but I wouldn’t change it for a second,” Jackson Holliday said.
On Wednesday, Holliday ascended those historic wooden stairs again. This time, Jackson wasn’t trailing after his father, but Matt was still nearby — he and Ethan watched batting practice from behind the cage.
As Holliday warmed up, he quickly found familiar faces in Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, two former No. 1 overall prospects whose debuts helped turn around the franchise.
Now, it’s Holliday’s turn to help the Orioles take the next step.
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Danielle Allentuck covers the Orioles for The Baltimore Banner. She previously reported on the Rockies for the Denver Gazette and general sports assignments for The New York Times as part of its fellowship program. A Maryland native, Danielle grew up in Montgomery County and graduated from Ithaca College.
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