Tony Kemp’s heartfelt reaction to being cut for Jackson Holliday’s Orioles call-up

There is a ton of excitement for Jackson Holliday’s major league debut with the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday, but the reality is that there had to be a corresponding move and someone would be removed from the major league roster, and that player was Tony Kemp. Despite being designated for assignment by the Orioles, Tony Kemp shared a memory of seeing Jackson Holliday as a kid from when he was in college.

“In the fall of 2010, our college had a series against the Longhorns for a 3 game set,” Tony Kemp posted on X. “Our hitting coach at the time was Josh Holiday and his brother, Matt, brought his kid to our early practice. I remember watching his son @J_Holliday7 with a sweet lefty swing. Go get em’ kid!”

Kemp played at the Vanderbilt baseball program, a power program at the college level, and played on a staff that included Josh Holliday, the brother of major league baseball player Matt Holliday, who is the father of Jackson Holliday. It is a small world, and a classy message for Kemp to wish Jackson Holliday luck in his major league career with the Orioles.

In 2012, Josh took the head coaching job at Oklahoma State. Matt is now a volunteer assistant for the Oklahoma State baseball program. He played 15 years in MLB with the Colorado Rockies, Oakland Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees. His last season in the big leagues was in 2018 with the Rockies, which was a return to home. He was a member of the 2011 Cardinals team that won the World Series.

Now, the attention shifts to Jackson in his MLB debut on Wednesday against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. He is batting ninth and playing second base for the Orioles.

Jackson Holliday’s rise to prospect stardom

The Orioles selected Holliday with the No. 1 pick in the 2022 MLB Draft. He was 18 years old at the time, and usually for a prospect that young, it takes them a while to work their way up the ranks to MLB. That is not the case for Jackson Holliday.

In 2022, Holliday played at both the rookie ball and low-A ball levels in the Orioles’ organization. He played a combined 20 games at those levels, eight at rookie ball and 12 at low-A, according to Baseball Reference.

In 2023, Holliday played at four different levels of professional baseball in the Orioles’ minor league system. He worked from low-A through high-A, double-A and triple-A. His 57 games played at high-A were the most he played at any stop. This season, he played 10 games at triple-A before getting the ball to the big leagues to play with the Orioles.

The Orioles have a ton of young, talented players that have come up and made them a contender in the American League this season, but Holliday is by far the most highly-touted one and the one that has received the most hype. That is saying a lot with a team that features players like Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman and others.

The baseball world’s eyes will be on Holliday as he takes the field for the first time in the major leagues at Fenway Park.