The Baltimore Orioles have conducted a major makeover of the team this offseason, and all of those moves have the Orioles looking like a postseason team once again.
But not everything is all well and good for the Orioles entering the 2026 season. For starters, they missed out on Framber Valdez, who would’ve been a perfect free agent signing. And now, they have some brutal injury news on a top player.
According to Jacob Calvin Meyer of The Baltimore Sun, Orioles’ Mike Elias shared that Jackson Holliday has a broken bone in his hand and will miss a while, including Opening Day.
Orioles’ Jackson Holliday to miss Opening Day
“Jackson Holliday has a broken hamate bone in his right hand,” Meyer shares. “He will get surgery tomorrow and miss opening day, Mike Elias said. Holliday suffered the injury Feb. 6 during live batting practice. His timeline after opening day will be ‘measured in weeks,’ said Elias.”
This is far from ideal for the Orioles. Holiday is projected to be the team’s starting second baseman and leadoff hitter for the 2026 season.
But now, with this broken bone in his hand, Holliday will miss significant time, including the start of the season. There’s going to be some time to begin the season with Holliday out due to this hand injury.
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It’s a brutal turn of events for the Orioles, especially since this injury happened during the offseason, and it’s not an injury that lingered from the 2025 season until now.
The 22-year-old infielder is going to miss some time and will likely miss more than just Opening Day. His Spring Training is done, and he won’t be ready to go for a while.
Holliday played in 149 games last season for the Orioles, putting up a .242 batting average with a .690 OPS. While not the best season, he showed promise, and there was more optimism for the 2026 season.
But that optimism will have to wait, as this injury will force him to miss a significant amount of time. Blaze Alexander, the infielder the Orioles recently traded for, will likely take his place to open the season.
