Jackson Holliday injury update shows Orioles have a tough roster decision coming soon

Jackson Holliday kicked off the Baltimore Orioles' spring training this year by having surgery to remove his broken hamate bone, ruling him out for opening day. Holliday's missing the start of the season allowed the Orioles to make one fewer difficult cut at the end of spring training, but now that he has returned to game action with the Norfolk Tides, it is only a matter of time before he returns and forces the Orioles to make a difficult decision.

Holliday sustained his hamate injury around the same time as two other players, Francisco Lindor and Corbin Carroll. Both players recovered from the injury in time to play in spring training games and make the opening-day roster. For whatever reason, the Orioles have decided to slow-play Holliday's rehab.

Holliday's rehab is off to a slow start, with him going 0-6 with four strikeouts in his first couple of games. It's understandable because these would typically be his late February spring training at-bats, but he's not exactly forcing the Orioles hand just yet.

Jackson Holliday will soon force a curious Orioles' roster decision.

That's not going to be the case for long, though. Over the next couple of weeks, Holliday is going to round into form, and the Orioles are going to activate him. When that happens, the Orioles will have to make the difficult decision of who to send down.

Most of the position players on the Orioles are very secure in their place based on their contract/past performance, so there's only a small handful of players who could get optioned to make room for Holliday.

Jeremiah Jackson and Blaze Alexander are the ones covering for Holliday at second. Could one of them be optioned when he returns?

Alexander is almost guaranteed to be safe because he's out of options and the Orioles aren't going to cut him two weeks into the season. Jackson would be a painful goodbye because he's been one of the Orioles best hitters so far in this young season, and it would just feel wrong to reward such good play with a demotion.

Leody Taveras might have been the last player to sneak onto the opening-day roster, and with the Orioles evidently willing to start Dylan Beavers in center, he might have been considered rather expendable. However, Beavers first major league dalliance with center field went poorly, and as a result, Taveras's importance on the roster as a capable centerfielder ticked up a few notches.

It would be a tad harsh to option Ryan Mountcastle, considering he is the Orioles' longest tenured position player. But the Orioles optioned their longest tenured starter, Dean Kremer, at the start of the season, so harsh doesn't seem to be in their vocabulary. The reason Mountcastle could find himself optioned is simply because he doesn't offer the positional versatility of the other fringe roster players.

Whoever the Orioles decide to demote to make room for Holliday, it will not be the last time that they appear with the Major League team. The Orioles are going to need all their depth to make it through the long season and contend for the AL East.