Jackson Holliday struggled at the plate throughout most of his first MLB season, but the star prospect may have figured something out just in time for the playoffs.
Holliday made a significant change to his swing in the last two games of the regular season. After Holliday went 3-for-4 with a double and two walks in the Baltimore Orioles’ win over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday, Jacob Calvin Meyer of the Baltimore Sun noticed that the 20-year-old’s swing looked a lot different.
Jackson Holliday has been working on a swing change — getting rid of his big leg kick and incorporating a toe tap.
He broke it out last night and went 3-for-4 with a double and two walks.
Here's his swing on the double: pic.twitter.com/awL4OcSa3a
— Jacob Calvin Meyer (@jcalvinmeyer) September 29, 2024
Holliday seems to have done away with his big leg kick and replaced it with a more subtle toe tap. Here is a more detailed explanation with a video that shows his previous swing:
Jackson Holliday has made an adjustment to his prehension.
Jackson used to use an open pack humeroradial position in his front arm and an open pack humeroulnar position in his back arm.
He has flipped those and now uses the open pack humeroulnar position in his front arm and… pic.twitter.com/t82EJXAF2q
— Tommy Maestas (@tommym8) September 30, 2024
Holliday also had two at-bats against the Twins in Sunday’s season finale, and he recorded a hit and a walk.
After he seemed to figure things out at the plate with the help of an unlikely good-luck charm, Holliday struggled again for the majority of September. He certainly ended the regular season on a high note, however, which could give the Orioles some interesting decisions to make in the playoffs.
The Orioles even had a custom celebration for Holliday after they clinched a postseason spot, so the young star is clearly popular with his teammates.
Baltimore will host the Kansas City Royals in the AL Wild Card on Tuesday.
