Jackson Holliday Signs With Baltimore

It’s official: Jackson Holliday will be wearing orange and black, but not here in Stillwater. The former Oklahoma State baseball commit has signed his rookie contract with the Baltimore Orioles.

The contract is worth slightly less than the No. 1 overall slot value of $8,842,200, but it still made all the sense in the world for Holliday to sign with Baltimore instead of spending at least three years in Stillwater as it’s a little difficult to improve upon being taken No. 1 overall.

As you can see in the tweet above, Holliday’s $8.19 million eclipses the previous record for most money ever to a player signed out of high school, which was held by the Royal’s Bobby Witt Jr. with $7,787,400 back in 2019.

When it comes to the first handful of picks in any draft, it’s all about splitting hairs. However, it’s safe (and obvious) to say Holliday was one of the best high school baseball players in the country. He broke the national single season hit record with 89 hits this past season with Stillwater, as he batted .685 with 17 home runs and 79 RBIs.

He also hit 37 singles, 29 doubles and six triples, all of which earned him multiple Player of the Year awards and was named the Oklahoma Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year, multiple National Baseball Player of the Year awards, as well as earning an ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove.

I certainly hope Jackson Holliday goes on to have even more success than the previous high school player who was committed to Oklahoma State but went No. 1 overall in the 1980 draft: Darryl Strawberry.