SARASOTA—Jackson Holliday walked into the Orioles’ clubhouse on Monday morning with a cast on his right hand. Holliday had the hamate bone in his right wrist removed on Thursday by Dr. Steven Shin in Los Angeles.
The 22-year-old second baseman joined his teammates on the day of the first full-squad workout.
Holliday was the only Orioles position player who was active for the entire 2025 season, playing 149 games. It’s unlikely that will happen in 2026.
Last Wednesday when Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias announced Holliday’s injury, he said the 22-year-old would miss the beginning of the regular season.
“I’m hoping it doesn’t linger too long,” Holliday said. “Going off of how I feel, I obviously don’t want to rush into anything in the beginning of the season and press on something that doesn’t need to be pressed on. That’s my goal. I’ve got nothing to do but try to get better as fast as I can and just looking forward to that process.
“I talked to some guys that have had the same surgery, and they say they’ve been back hitting lives in three weeks. That’s my goal. I don’t know what their goal is, but my goal is to be back as fast as possible, just ready to get this thing off and get rolling.”
Holliday was looking forward to being on the field with his teammates, though he’s under restrictions.
“I think I can do pretty much everything but swing a bat and throw,” Holliday said. “I’ll be out there taking ground balls as far as I know, and running bases and making sure this is done as quick as possible. Should be ready to go as far as my legs. Hopefully, make that a little bit quicker.”
Holliday broke the bone in his wrist on February 6th in Sarasota.
“Live at-bats, took a swing. Knew something wasn’t exactly right,” Holliday said. “Decided to say something, got the X-rays and broke it. It’s kind of a common thing, just unfortunate timing. Took one swing and knew something wasn’t right.”
He took five live at-bats before breaking the bone.
“In those five live at-bats, I felt pretty good,” Holliday said. “I was pretty excited about the stuff I worked on … I’m excited to watch these guys, take mental reps and watch these guys swing because that’s something I enjoy. I had a good offseason, except for this.”
Last season, Holliday hit .242 with a .690 OPS, 17 home runs and 55 RBIs.
“It’s a pretty good lineup,” Holliday said. “It’s pretty fun to be in this locker room with these guys. Some of our additions are pretty good players, so I’m pretty excited.”
Holliday was thrilled that the Orioles spent aggressively this offseason.
“It’s awesome to see. Obviously some teams are doing that at pretty high rates, it seems to work. For us to go out and get some guys, it’s really cool to understand the team that we have, and the potential that we have is really exciting for sure.”
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