In a radio appearance Tuesday, seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday raised questions about the Orioles’ choice not to include his son, Jackson Holliday, on the club’s opening day roster.
Matt Holliday said during an interview on 590 The Fan in St. Louis that there was a “business element to this, and there’s no way around it.” The elder Holliday also noted how entering the spring, general manager Mike Elias “had gone on record of saying that he [Jackson Holliday] had a great chance to make the team if he played well, and I think that was his goal and he went out and played well.”
Jackson Holliday returned to Triple-A Norfolk, a level he has only played 18 games during his first year of professional ball. The 20-year-old roared through four levels of the minor leagues last year, mostly as a shortstop, and finished the spring with a .311 average and a .954 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
After making the decision to send Holliday back to Triple-A, Elias said Holliday’s position change to second base and lack of experience against high-level left-handed pitching played a role.
Holliday hit 2-for-14 against lefties in the spring with nine strikeouts. Most of those came early in the spring. In March, when Holliday seemed more at ease in the batter’s box, he blasted a grand slam against Yusei Kikuchi — a major league left-hander for the Toronto Blue Jays.
“There’s a business element to this, and there’s no way around it,” Matt Holliday said in the interview. “Just like the player will have the opportunity to turn this into a business at some point, everybody is going to look out for what’s best for them, and you just have to deal with it. Like I said, it’s a good learning lesson. It’s a good opportunity for him to learn and to grow and to be tough. To just, like I said, move on and go play and go play well. He’ll be up there soon.
“You acknowledge the disappointment, and then you come up with a plan for what’s next.”
Asked by one of the radio hosts of “Hot Take Central” whether Matt Holliday was accusing the Orioles of service time manipulation, the former National League batting champion didn’t commit. Service time manipulation is a practice where teams hold a player in the minor leagues for long enough to ensure they don’t receive a full year of service time, thus potentially extending their time in the organization before they hit free agency.
Last week, Elias said the decision was not made based on service time.
“I don’t know when he’ll appear, but look, you call it what you want,” Matt Holliday said. “I think if he was under contract like the kid from Milwaukee [Jackson Chourio], if there was absolutely no free agency or money involved and you took somebody and put him in a room and you didn’t know much about anybody and they just watched baseball, and they just watched spring training, and you ask them who the best players at each position would be, I think there would be a good chance for him to be on the team.
“But we don’t live in that world, and so, it could save them a year of him before he’s in free agency,” Holliday continued. “As a 20-year-old, they have a really talented roster, so I’m not going to accuse anybody of anything, but I think it’s just the idea that there is a business element to it and it’s just one of those things where it’s part of the game. If he goes out and gets first or second in Rookie of the Year, then he’ll have a chance to earn the service time back.”
When a player finishes in the top two of Rookie of the Year voting in his league, they are granted a full season of MLB service time — one of the adjustments made by the league to help curb service time manipulation.
Matt Holliday also pointed out the glut of prospects in a similar position as his son, such as infielder Connor Norby and outfielder Heston Kjerstad: “Really good players who are probably major league players but end up back in Triple-A.”
Jackson Holliday’s season will begin March 29 for the Norfolk Tides, alongside many other highly ranked prospects. Before too long, Holliday will be in Baltimore.
“It doesn’t always go your way,” Matt Holliday said. “And so, I think he was disappointed, and so I was disappointed for him. He moves on from things pretty well and pretty fast.”
