Jackson Holliday's broken hand will test the Orioles' infield depth early

The first week of spring training always brings a flood of injury updates, and this year, the bad news for the Baltimore Orioles is that third-year second baseman Jackson Holliday broke his hand in batting practice and will miss the start of the season. This is obviously a big blow to both Holliday and the Orioles. Holliday was looking to build off last season, when he played almost every game, batted leadoff for most of the year, and almost made the All-Star team. Now, he'll face an uphill battle to get healthy and get back into the lineup.

Holliday will have surgery tomorrow to remove his broken hamate bone. The Orioles haven't given an exact timeline for Holliday's return, but they already announced that he will miss Opening Day, which is a little over seven weeks away. Francisco Lindor and Corbin Carroll also both injured their hamate bones this week, and the projected recovery time for them was six weeks, which would get them back before opening day. Either the Orioles are just being extra conservative with Holliday's timetable, or they believe his injury is more serious than theirs.

With Jackson Holliday out to start the season, there is a new spring training battle to keep an eye on

With this news in mind, the Blaze Alexander trade the Orioles made a few days ago appears to make more sense, but Elias informed reporters that the Alexander trade was made before they knew about Holliday's injury. Whether it was good preparation or just good luck, the Orioles made the move to cover for Jackson Holliday's absence before he was hurt.

Alexander came up through the minors as a shortstop and has played 31 games at second base in his young career, so if the Orioles wanted to slide him right into the starting lineup at second, they certainly could. They also have the option of having Jordan Westburg slide to second and having Blaze play third, where he has played the majority of his time in the majors.

Alexander sliding into the starting lineup brings the question of who will fill the utility bench bat role that Alexander was traded for. The apparent answer to that question would be Jeremiah Jackson, who had a breakout run when he was called up at the end of last season, but with the Alexander trade, appeared destined to return to the minors. With Alexander's bench spot vacated, Jackson makes the most sense to fill it. He's an infielder by trade, but the Orioles mostly played Jackson in the outfield last year. He's not great defensively at either spot, making him the rare bat-first utility man, but once you're pulling from the minors for depth, you can't have everything.

If the Orioles want to keep Alexander in the utility role they envisioned for him, they also have the option to play Coby Mayo at third and move Westburg to second. Mayo is not a good defensive third baseman, which is why the Orioles moved him to first base midway through last season. Even though Elias knew about Holliday's injury when he spoke to the media yesterday, when he was asked about positions Mayo could play for the team, he mentioned first base and the outfield, and notably not third base.

However, Mayo, in his lone interaction with the media, mentioned that he has not given up on playing third and worked on it this offseason. If Mayo looks alright at third in spring training, the Orioles could choose to give him another shot at his position of choice.

Mayo is a confounding player who has mostly struggled in the big leagues, but his last month of the 2025 season, where he slashed .301/.393/.548 with five homers, was a window into the potential that made him a consensus top prospect. If the Orioles could get that version of Mayo at the plate, then it would be worth it to have him in the lineup even if the defense is poor.