Scout affirms confidence in Orioles' young star

According to the unnamed scout, Holliday's main priority needs to be improving his defense. Holliday started 136 games at second base in 2025 and had a dWAR (Defensive Wins Above Replacement) of -0.6 according to Baseball Reference. As an everyday player, Holliday's defensive struggles were detrimental to an disappointing Orioles team that finished in the top 10 in errors (0.54 per game).

But as the scout pointed out, this kind of development comes most often through time and reps, which Holliday will continue to see at the major league level. After all, he had spent most of his life playing shortstop before he was transitioned to second base during Spring Training in 2024. In his comments, the scout invoked the MLB journey of Orioles great Adam Jones, comparing the minor leagues now to how it was when Jones got his start more than a decade ago.

“Adam Jones came up, struggled. He got a lot of reps in Triple-A before he got to the big leagues," he explained. "But that was a different Triple-A than what Jackson’s playing in. Triple-A now, there’s such a disconnect now between Triple-A baseball and the big leagues that a guy like Jackson, it’s like, the heck with it, we’re gonna have him take his licks up here because the pitching in Triple-A just isn’t really good enough and consistent enough. He’s not gonna learn as much there as he will at the big league level.”

If his comments are any indication of how the club views Holliday's development, they will be willing to exercise some patience with his maturation process just as they would if it were happening in the minor leagues, as it most often does.

21-year-old catcher Samuel Basallo, who Baltimore just marked as another organizational building block with an eight-year, $67 million contract extension, made over 400 appearances in the minors before the Orioles called him up to the big-league roster. That is to say, Holliday's circumstances are irregular, but the Orioles have decided that they prefer he "take his licks" at the highest level rather than in Triple-A where there is a significant drop off.

With this patient approach in mind, the hope for the O's is that Holliday, along with the young crop of talent around him in Basallo, Dylan Beavers, and Gunnar Henderson can all take considerable steps forward next season to put the club back in the mix for a postseason spot.