In Photos: Jackson Holliday's wife Chloe shares personal moments from 'husband's MLB debut'
20-year-old Jackson Holliday made his MLB debut against the Boston Red Sox on April 11. The young infielder has since stayed at the top level, hitting ninth for the Baltimore Orioles as they try to go about defending their AL East title. His wife Chloe just put up a photo dump of her husband's first MLB game.
She captioned her post:
"Husband's MLB debut."
The couple took some adorable photos on the field before the game in front of the Green Wall, the iconic left field fence in Fenway Park. They also hugged and kissed in some photos. It was a tough Orioles debut for Holliday, though he did ultimately record his first career RBI.
Jackson Holliday's first foray into the MLB has been slow
Jackson Holliday's first few MLB games have not been great, at least at the plate. He has been worth three outs above average (OAA) at second base, so the defense is top-notch. The bat, which was his calling card, has not been so good.
As bad as a .059/.111/.059 slash line is, it might not do Holliday justice. He has hit at a -50 wRC+ clip. League average is 100, which means he has been 150% worse than the average hitter thus far.
Ultimately, this is a tiny sample size at the beginning of his career. Small sample sizes (Holliday has just 36 plate appearances) are never a good judge of someone's ability or talent, and that is true with the MLB's top prospect.
That is even more true when it comes to beginning a career. No matter how good a player is at AAA, there's a decided jump in pitching quality from there to the MLB. He was raking at AAA and he's not in the MLB, and much of that is just that there's a major adjustment to be made.
After so few plate appearances, it's not difficult to see why he's struggled. Whether or not he will turn it around remains to be seen, but this ugly start is only that: a start.