The Baltimore Orioles took Jackson Holliday with the number one overall pick in the 2022 MLB draft. He is currently the top prospect in baseball and is having a solid first season in the major leagues. The oldest son of Cardinals legend Matt Holliday, Jackson is set to be a key piece of the Orioles moving forward. In 2025, his brother Ethan Holliday will likely be the top pick in the MLB draft. They would become the second set of brothers to be drafted number one overall in their sport after the Manning brothers.
USA Today's Bob Nightengale spoke to Matt about his two sons and he compared them as players. “People look at the size and some of those raw abilities. He’s got 111-mph exit velocity with the bat, he’s got an incredible strong arm, and just some of the tangible things at a young age that he was further along than Jackson was.”
The Manning brothers are a lofty comparison for two brothers who already have big expectations. Matt was a seven-time All-Star and won the 2011 World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals. Peyton and Eli had a similar hype coming into the pros, as their father Archie Manning was a quarterback. The Orioles are hoping Holliday lives up to both comparisons.
If Ethan Holliday is drafted first overall, the expectations will be very high. Jackson has started to live up to his hype, putting together a three-hit, three-run game last week. The Holliday brothers will almost certainly be in baseball fans' lives for a long time.
Expectations of Orioles' Jackson Holliday, brother Ethan
Jackson Holliday is expected to be one of the premier middle infielders in baseball. They traded Coby Mayo to the Miami Marlins at the trade deadline partially because they could afford to let go of him. Holliday came up to the Orioles after the trade deadline and has performed well since.
Since his most recent call-up, Holliday is hitting .270 with five home runs and 14 RBIs. Team success has not followed, however, as the Orioles are just 8-8 in that stretch. The team does not need Holliday to lead the team this year, as Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman are the offensive stars.
Ethan Holliday is set to have the same expectations as his brother. He will join a lackluster team just like Holliday did in 2022 and hopefully will be able to power them out of their rebuild. The only thing known right now is that he cannot end up on the Chicago White Sox or Oakland Athletics. The new draft lottery rules forbid certain teams from winning the lottery in consecutive years.
The team with the worst record heading into Monday's action is the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies drafted Matt Holliday in the seventh round of the 1998 MLB draft. It ended up being a great selection as he won the 2007 NLCS MVP and finished second in regular-season MVP voting that season.
While they may not be the Manning brothers, the Holliday brothers are set to join them in the history books. If they can become multiple-time champions like those Manning brothers, expect to hear the name “Holliday” a lot over the next few decades.
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