Jackson Holliday's Fantasy Baseball Outlook After Being Called Up

Many people were surprised that Baltimore Orioles’ Jackson Holliday didn’t make the big league team out of spring training, but knew it was probably only a matter of time before the youngster got called up.

The wait is over, as it was announced Holliday was being called up late on Tuesday. Here’s the moment Holliday found out the big news:

With the top prospect in baseball about ready to debut, let’s discuss his fantasy outlook and how it affects the Orioles as a team.

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Jackson Holliday’s Stats and Tools

It’s easy to see why Holliday is the No. 1 prospect in the game to nearly everybody. He’s hit for a combined .321 average across his time in the minor leagues, which spans from 2022 until now. Holliday has an absurd .451 on-base percentage too.

Holliday has collected 187 total hits over 155 games. He’s scored 145 runs and has 64 extra-base hits (including 15 homers). He’s walked as many times as he’s been a strikeout victim (138 times) and has 29 stolen bases to his name.

There doesn’t appear to be a weakness in Holliday’s game, and his scouting grades from MLB.com back that up. He’s got a 70 grade in hitting, a 60 in power and run and a 55 in arm and fielding. His overall mark of 70 makes him the only prospect with that number.

The reason many people thought he’d make the MLB team right away this regular season is because in spring training, he put up fantastic numbers. He had a .311 average and .354 OBP. Among his 14 total hits, he had three doubles and two triples and homers. Holliday drove in six runs, scored six times, stole two bases, walked three times and struck out on 15 occasions.

There’s a lot of great numbers in there, but I’d have to guess the strikeouts in every three at-bats played a role in starting him in Triple-A. All he did there was hit .333 with a .482 OBP, with seven extra-base hits (two homers) among his 14 total hits. Holliday drove in nine runs, scored 18 times, walked 12 times and struck out just eight times.

There was really no reason to hold the youngster back anymore, and he’ll try to jolt a Baltimore team that is off to a 6-4 start.

Holliday’s Fantasy Outlook with Balimore

The Orioles have a great assembly of hitters already in place, so adding Holliday just makes the lineup more dangerous. 

Many are expecting Holliday to start out as the team’s No. 9 hitter, and that seems like a pretty logical guess. There’s a chance he could hit first if he excels at the big league level, but until he settles in, batting him ninth takes a lot of pressure off of him.

The big names in the Baltimore lineup (Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman, Anthony Santander, Ryan Mountcastle) hit in the top half of the lineup, but guys like Cedric Mullins, Colton Cowser or Austin Hays and Jordan Westburg are solid hitters too and going to be on base for Holliday.

With that in mind, I see Holliday as a pretty solid fantasy asset right away. His main fantasy contribution will be hits/his average, but he should also have some opportunities to drive in some runs and steal some bases. With the big names atop the lineup, if Holliday can get on base, he should score plenty of runs too.

He’s only available in about 10% of leagues right now, so act quickly if you want to scoop him up. Holliday is obviously much more valuable in deep leagues/dynasties right now, but it might not take him long to become of the better standard league options too.

The other nice thing with Holliday is he probably already has some position versatility (shortstop and second base) - if he doesn’t, he should earn that quickly as he’s likely going to start his career at second base. That should help you get him into your lineup early and often, even if you already have some good infielders in place.

As for how Holliday’s presence will affect other Orioles’ hitters, players like Mullins, Cowser/Hays and Westburg should have a better chance to score if they can reach base. This boosts the fantasy outlooks for Henderson and Rutschman at the top of the order too, giving them more RBI chances instead of having to lead off innings with nobody on base.

I’d expect the Baltimore team hitting stats to get a boost and improve over the next several weeks, and I’m thinking the team’s win percentage will also improve a bit with Holliday around.

The last thing I want to say is to be patient with Holliday. He’s a highly-regarded prospect for a reason, but that doesn’t mean he’ll instantly be a star. If he struggles for a couple weeks, or even for a month, I’d do my best to hang on to the youngster. I fully expect him to figure things out at some point this season, and he could be one of the better fantasy hitters by the end of the season, even after missing about the first two weeks of games.