Baltimore Orioles Promising Young Star Predicted to Have Breakout Season

The Baltimore Orioles have a former first-round pick that many expect to take a huge step forward this coming season.

Orioles infielder Jackson Holliday scoops up a ground ball during drills on Tuesday. The Baltimore Orioles held their first full-squad workout of the 2025 spring training season on Tuesday, Feb. 18th in Sarasota, Florida. | Mike Lang / Sarasota Herald-Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

With the start of the regular season coming up for the Baltimore Orioles, the team will once again be full of exciting young talent in their lineup. 

For the past two campaigns, there hasn’t been a team in the American League that has won as many games during the year as the Orioles. 

Baltimore has done an excellent job with drafting and developing their young players, and it has resulted in one of the best lineups in baseball. The exciting thing for the Orioles is that they seemingly have a top hitting prospect coming up every season as well. 

With All-Star caliber players at multiple positions led by MVP hopeful Gunnar Henderson, Baltimore should still be a very good team in 2025 despite lackluster additions to their starting rotation. 

The Orioles will do what they have done in recent years and that is to lean on the lineup to carry them. Fortunately, they have another talented young player who is hoping to accomplish significant things in 2025. 

Kiley McDaniel of ESPN.com (paid subscription required) recently wrote about the promising young star Jackson Holliday having a breakout season in 2025. 

“The expectations for Holliday were a little overwhelming last season, which usually happens with the top prospect in baseball," he wrote. "I'll pick him to beat his projections this year (2.0 to 2.5 WAR, slightly above league-average OPS) after expectations fell a bit below his talent level.”

It was a challenging start to his Major League career for Holliday in 2024. The former first-overall pick was never able to get going with a couple of moves back and forth between the minors. 

However, the talent is certainly there for the young infielder, and he is slated to be the starting second baseman for the team to start the campaign. 

Perhaps that will help alleviate some of the pressure and let him relax a little to start the season. 

In 2024, the 21-year-old slashed .189 /.255/.311 with five home runs and 23 RBI. While those numbers are far from good, he slashed .271/.431/.477 with 10 home runs in Triple-A, proving that the talent is there. 

With a good mix of power and speed, Holliday is an appealing player for the Orioles. At just 21 years old, he will likely continue to get bigger and stronger, but his ability to run the bases effectively provides an added dynamic for the team. 

Even though it might not have been the start to his career that Holliday would have liked, he is having a good spring and should hopefully have settled down a bit. 

At just 21 years old, the sky is still the limit for the young infielder. A good start to the season will be key, but he can certainly have a breakout year.