The Orioles, nine years into a never-ending rebuild, are still in discovery mode.There are a handful of young players who have yet to establish themselves in any way despite being considered elite prospects at the time they were promoted to Baltimore. In the instance of former first-overall pick Jackson Holliday, he was considered the best prospect in baseball.After another lost first-half, and with a major-league product that is simply bush league in so many ways, the odds of this season amounting to anything of note - collectively – are sparce. Baseball czar Mike Elias has never built a roster capable of winning a single playoff game anyway. There are again more holes than strengths.It had better amount to something, however, on an individual level for some of their alleged core, none more so than Holliday. Of that second wave of prospects promoted after Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson, most are either no longer really a part of the plan (Heston Kjerstad) or they seem to think are platoon types (Coby Mayo and Colton Cowser). Most are already in their mid-20s. This is still the beginning for Holliday, 22, and Samuel Basallo, 21; Big Sam belongs, we know that much, while Holliday has much to prove all these years after Elias proclaimed him a key to a postseason run that never went anywhere.Holliday’s draft class might just be poor. It happens. And he might just be a scrappy second-baseman who is a solid regular but nothing spectacular. I wouldn’t anticipate much more than that, but I also wasn’t among those anointing him as an All Star and untouchable trade piece (I actually wanted him marketed for trade). He was never going to stay at shortstop whether another poor-fielding shortstop, Henderson, was ahead of him on the depth chart or not. And he may have to embrace the aspects of the game that don’t send you flying up prospect lists – hustle, just trying to get on base, grit, slapping the ball the other way, mastering sacrifice bunts – to maximize his impact.My guess is you get solid power in the 15-20 homer range, but not enough to make it a carrying trait. Can he hit 35-40 doubles a year? I’m more interested in that. Can he walk more and strikeout less? If he can’t get to elevated heat then can he learn to leave it alone? Can he be a competent second baseman who can fill in once a week at short?And, can he stay on the field, or become yet another part of this much-hyped core who can’t man their position consistently enough? They need to push him to be in the lineup as much as possible the rest of this season and find out all they can. Through parts of three seasons, what we have come to see of him has been what you’d expect of a very young player trying to prove he can stick and make an impact … but that’s not what Elias sold you this kid was or the impact he would make.Two trade deadlines ago, when the inept baseball executive choked as usual in boosting his roster, he sold Holliday and Mayo as “big contributors” that would elevate the team down the stretch. That’s the type of ridiculous conman Orioles fans are stuck with, since this ownership doesn’t pay attention or is just happy cashing their checks.“He’s very close,” Elias said, always spinning but never winning, while making excuses for blowing another trade deadline in 2024. “He’s going to help us this year.”Still waiting, Ivy Leaguer.Now for reality: Here’s how Holliday actually stacks up nearly two full years later.Hit ToolHolliday is closing in on 1000 plate appearances. That’s a real sample. That’s time to make some adjustments and the league to make some back. And there is simply still a lot of work to do here.Holliday is striking out over 31% of the time this season and over 25% for his career. Love the fact he has taken more pitches this season and is walking much more (12%), but he also carries a career .299 on base that absolutely must get markedly better and sooner rather than later. He chases power and this is an organization that has set back many a prospect by over-emphasizing launch angle, and that’s easy to get caught up in. They have enough guys doing that already. He must get on base at the bottom of the order and turn the lineup over and take extra bases once he reaches. Holliday’s .661 OPS, among the 195 players with at least 950 plate appearances since the start of 2024, ranks 180th in MLB. The bat needs to be competent if nothing else because I don’t believe the glove will be more than that.FieldingHe’s still not natural or instinctive at second base. It hasn’t come easily to him. He also still hasn’t played there that much. Again, he needs to be there five-to-six days a week every week until this season ends.Despite his athleticism and youth, his range is a problem – 33rd percentile. His arm is quite simply a problem - perhaps so much so that it puts corner outfielder out of his reach if second remains troublesome. He is in the 15th percentile in arm strength.He doesn’t look fluid getting to the bag on double plays or turning them. He has barely played this year but already been a part of some brutal sequences that can’t happen in MLB. Certainly not as much as they have with him so far.The Orioles player development has been nothing short of atrocious and there is a very real chance he is yet another victim of that. It’s far from too late but tangible progress needs to start, now. (Oh, but don’t worry Cal’s on the case and he’s going to be able to bail Elias out and fix all their minor leaguers from here on out!)Base RunningTwice he has been a part of sequences when he failed to score a run before an out was made at third base. Neither was totally on him, but for a kid with some of the best straight-line speed in MLB (80th percentile sprint speed) it’s just a strange look.They need to help him to read the ball better off the bat and show up more first to third. He has been poor at reading pitchers and getting legit leads, and that’s part of why he has just 24 career steals and been caught a whopping 11 times. He also doesn’t slide naturally and tends to keep his legs up in the air when going headfirst, which makes him easy to tag.When you think of a first-overall pick with these bloodlines whose dad is in the Cardinals team Hall of Fame and who has been around baseball all his life, it’s awkward to see this at the MLB level. Things you might take for granted, you just can’t in this instance.But that probably says less about him, and more about the organization that drafted him. For while Holliday certainly has significant control over what his career turns out to be, and whether he falls prey to The Elias Way, he obviously had none in how he arrived here.Subscribe On YouTube For The Best Orioles Coverage:Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow