Orioles finding out cost of rushing guys back from injury after Jackson Holliday setback

One cardinal rule in baseball is that if you try to rush a player back from an injury, you are taking a serious risk. Very often, you get a player back who is not 100%, and they usually underperform. And sometimes, they end up re-injuring themselves and make things even worse. Unfortunately, this is a lesson that the Baltimore Orioles are having to learn the hard way with Jackson Holliday.

When Holliday broke the hamate bone in his right hand almost as soon as spring camp opened in February, both he and the team predicted a quick recovery in the aftermath. Holliday was chomping at the bit to play, and Baltimore seemed to believe that his recovery was on track enough to only put him on the 10-day IL initially.

Holliday had one setback already in his recovery recently because of soreness in his surgically-repaired hand that basically reset his rehab assignment. On Tuesday, Holliday had to be pulled out of a rehab game again, and now there is real concern that pushing Holliday's return timeline may have cost everyone involved.

Jackson Holliday set to have MRI after yet another rehab setback

While we don't know exactly what is going on, this is clearly a problem that a couple of days off is unlikely to fix. Orioles manager Craig Albernaz revealed on Tuesday evening that Holliday is being brought back to Baltimore to get an MRI to figure out what is going on. Whenever an MRI is needed for an unexplained injury, that is pretty scary.

What we DO know is that the odds that Holliday returns anytime soon are approaching zero. Even in the best-case scenario, where the MRI only finds inflammation, the Orioles are going to shut down Holliday for a while to make sure that the problem is completely resolved before letting him ramp up again. In short, Orioles fans will be waiting weeks, at minimum, and perhaps significantly longer if the scans reveal other fractures or issues.

It is an unfortunate turn for Holliday, who really needed 2026 to be a turnaround season. No one denies the talent that the former first-overall pick has, but Holliday hasn't been able to translate that potential into equivalent results on the field. For the moment, it looks like we are going to have to wait a while before we see if he can get his career back on that trajectory again.

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