Bulked-up Holliday's massive homer a promising sign

TORONTO -- In case you hadn’t noticed by now, Jackson Holliday beefed up over the winter.

The Orioles’ 21-year-old infielder is stronger and has more power, making it so he can better muscle home runs to all fields. Even to deep left-center, where Holliday sent his first homer of the 2025 season on Friday.

On an otherwise difficult night for Baltimore -- resulting in an 8-2 loss to Toronto at Rogers Centre -- Holliday continued to show encouraging signs that his sophomore season will go better than his tough rookie campaign. None more so than the swing he put on a fastball from Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman in the third inning.

“I’m not expecting him to hit balls in the seats in the opposite-field gap, but that was really, really impressive,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “He takes Kevin Gausman deep like that, it’s impressive.”

The initial battle between Gausman -- one of the American League’s top pitchers in recent years -- and the left-handed-hitting Holliday began with a pair of balls. The right-hander missed with a four-seam fastball outside, then a splitter down and inside.

At 2-0, Gausman came back toward the middle of the plate with a 93.4 mph four-seamer, and Holliday made him pay.

Holliday connected and blasted a Statcast-projected 425-foot home run that had an exit velocity of 109 mph -- the second-hardest-hit knock of his 39 MLB hits. The only one that’s been harder was the former top prospect’s first career home run last July 31, when he belted a 439-foot, 109.2 mph grand slam, also against Toronto.

Hyde wasn’t alone in being wowed by Holliday’s opposite-field power.

“I squared it up, I’m like, ‘Eh, hopefully it has a chance.’” Holliday said. “My buddy texted me and was like, ‘What was that?’ I’m like, ‘That’s a good question. I don’t really know.’ But hopefully, if I can stick to that approach of hitting line drives to the gap like that, I’ll be in a good spot.”

The Blue Jays have gotten to see plenty of Holliday’s potential since last summer. Of his first six big league home runs, four have come vs. Toronto. Three have been hit at Rogers Centre, where he also went deep last Aug. 6 and 7.

“I like hitting here. I think this is a fun place to hit,” Holliday said. “See the ball well. Gaps are pretty favorable for hitters.”

Holliday showed he can still run, too. In the fifth, he legged out an infield single on a chopper hit the opposite way to third base. The 2022 No. 1 overall Draft pick ran from first to home in 4.19 seconds at an average sprint speed of 29.2 feet/second.

Holliday’s 2-for-3 performance marked his seventh multihit showing in 62 MLB games. He is batting .375 (3-for-8) through the first two days of this season.

After batting in the No. 9 hole on Opening Day on Thursday, Holliday -- who appears poised to greatly improve upon a rookie year in which he hit .189 with a .566 OPS in 60 games -- was slotted in at No. 8 on Friday. It wouldn’t be surprising if he moves up the order as the season continues.

The only hit by an Orioles player other than Holliday on Friday was a fourth-inning single by Ryan O’Hearn. The quiet night came a day after the O’s put up 12 runs with a 14-hit, six-homer Opening Day outburst.

“It’s part of baseball. It’s obviously very tough to replicate what we did last night every night. But we’ve got tomorrow,” Holliday said. “Obviously, not the result that we’re looking for as a team, but like I said, we’ve got tomorrow to get after it. That’s what we’re searching for every night, obviously, like the first night, but it’s tough to do that.”