Orioles Young Star Anticipated To Shine Brightly Following Rocky Rookie Season

With the season kicking off for the Baltimore Orioles, expectations will once again be high for the franchise. 

It has been a couple of very successful years for the Orioles. Baltimore has been a machine at winning games during the regular season, and their young core seemingly just keeps adding talent each year. 

One of the main reasons for the success of the Orioles in recent campaigns has been their ability to draft and develop players. Especially on offense. 

Most of the current core of the team are home-grown talent, which is always exciting to see. Now, Baltimore is trying to do what they can to get over the next hurdle, and that is to have some success in the postseason. 

Even though the team has made the playoffs the last two years both as a division winner and in the Wild Card spot, they have yet to win a postseason game. 

Having an ace in Corbin Burnes last year felt like it would have been the missing piece, but the team dealt with a lot of injuries and their lineup went cold at the worst time. 

Now, the Orioles will be hoping that some of their young talent continues to get better, which on offense is an exciting thought. Fortunately, they have some youngsters who have still yet to reach their potential. 

Patrick Andres, Ryan Phillips, and Tim Capurso of SI.com recently spoke about the potential breakout candidate for each team in the Majors. For the Orioles, it was former first overall pick, Jackson Holliday.

“Holliday, the son of former seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday, has the pedigree. As the top overall prospect from ‘24, he has the potential.”

It wasn’t a great start to the career of Holliday in the Majors, as he struggled quite a bit during both of his stints with Baltimore. 

As a young player, ups and downs happen, even to first overall picks. However, he’s got all the tools to be a very good player in the league and a mainstay for the Orioles in the infield. 

While he slashed 189/.255/.311, he did gain some valuable experience in his rookie campaign. That seemingly carried over into the spring this year, when he performed well. 

Even though the sample size is extremely small, he’s off to a nice start to this season, which is encouraging to see and great for his confidence. So far in 2025, he has slashed .316/.350/.474 with one home run and two RBI. 

Considering the team is without Gunnar Henderson, this is a great beginning to the year at an important time for Holliday. With a lot of potential, if he keeps up that type of slash line, it will certainly be a breakout season.