It has been three years since the Nutz broke his long playoff drought, and now, another drought is underway.
Last year, the savior of the Nutz to get him back to the postseason was Jordan Walker.
Walker was the coveted rookie of 2023, but after spring training wrapped up and the season started, he quickly became an afterthought.
So here we are, spring training 2024, and the new savior is Jackson Holliday, and this time, the hype looked to be real.
This could be the big break for the Nutz.
Perhaps the 15 strikeouts to only three walks were concerning, but the .311 batting average was something to love — especially for Butter. Holliday had 14 hits over 15 games with three doubles, two triples and two homers. He also stole two bags.
I know the moment that media release went out, I would have lost it, but at the end of the day, I have to think the Orioles have a good reason to do this. It just cannot be service time manipulation, because if he's up before June, I think he easily gets into that Top 3 Rookie of the Year race, thus awarding him a full year of service time anyway.
So there truly has to be a reason for him to go face more Triple-A pitching and not Triple Eh pitching.
Butter isn't buying it.
"We’re not angry that Jackson isn’t breaking camp with the big ball club," Nutz said. "We know he’s ready, and we have the depth to await his arrival to the show. It’s most likely a contract situation, time of service yadda yadda, whatever they want to tell themselves. Everyone knows he makes that Orioles team better, we all just have to wait a little while to see him shine."
And when he does get that chance, he will arrive to the Rocky Mountain Oysters to find himself surrounded by a bunch of pirates — so many, he might start to believe Jim Bowden and think there's an ocean port just outside of Denver.
Ke'Bryan Hayes, Oneil Cruz, Bryan Reynolds and Henry Davis figure to be mainstays in the Nutz lineup and he will rely heavily on them to produce in 2024.
"Pirates are going to be a force to reckon with, and with the exception of Mitch Keller, the guys you want to roster on your fantasy team are all here in the Mile High City," said Nutz, who still has a great chance of landing Mitch Keller through a trade. "Hayes needs to keep the strong offensive performance that he finished last season with, and if he does he will be a solid every day player at third base. Davis has been smashing in spring ball and between him and Cruz there should be plenty of cannonball splashes in Pittsburgh this year! A healthy Cruz will be a huge part of a winning season for us this season."
And health is going to be the key for sure.
The Nutz are looking at a bunch of red flags on the pitching side with Kevin Gausman, Kodai Senga, Braxton Garrett, John Means and Robert Stephenson. All of them look to be on the mend and on their way back, but it has to be a bit concerning after 2023 was somewhat derailed by Carlos Rodon and Joe Musgrove combining to make just 31 starts last year.
"Health is most certainly key," Nutz said. "If this team can come back from the early season injuries and stay healthy the rest of the way we should see ourselves in the playoffs. Going to need the bats to stay on point early because pitching will be a weakness for the first month with guys on the IL. Looking for great things out of the lean, mean, home run hitting machine that is Giancarlo Stanton. And feel we have the depth we need at positions like catcher (O’Hoppe, Naylor and eventually Davis) as well as the plethora of middle infielders."
The S-Scale had the Nutz in the middle of the road in most categories, so it's going to take a few players out-performing their projections to get him into the mix.
Maybe it is Stanton making some noise after losing some weight and working on a more athletic frame. Maybe it's Jordan Walker, who at age 21 is making his second go-round at the majors. Maybe it's Rhys Hoskins in his new home in Milwaukee.
Or maybe, just maybe, it's an early-season call-up of Jackson Holliday that helps bring the rain and end the drought.
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