Orioles Top Prospect Reunites With Dad’s Former Teammate
Kolten Wong has joined the Baltimore Orioles as a free agent to add depth to its infield and add another bat to the bench.
Wong has played 11 years in the Major Leagues, won two Gold Gloves, batting .256 with 86 home runs and 405 RBI.
Wong played for two teams last year — the Seattle Mariners and the Los Angeles Dodgers — and hit .183 in 87 games. But in his younger days with St. Louis, Wong was a capable starter who batted as high as .285 in 2019.
It’s those days in St. Louis that are causing some echoes for Wong these days. The 33-year-old hopes to make the Major League team. So does the Orioles’ No. 1 prospect, Jackson Holliday.
If both Wong and Holliday make the team, that would put Wong in the rather odd position of playing with the son of his former teammate, Matt Holliday.
From 2013 to 2016 Wong and Matt Holliday were teammates. Jackson tagged along to the ballpark.
The younger Holliday made quite the impression, Wong said to MLB.com. One word Wong said stuck out — beast.
“I just knew that he was going to be a beast, and it’s fun to see him turning into that now,” Wong said. “He was literally entrenched in the big leagues when he was that age. ... The kid was there taking BP, he’d be out there shagging fly balls. He was in it.”
Wong won both of his Gold Gloves at second base, a position Holliday, a natural shortstop, is playing more of in spring training. So Holliday is picking his brain.
Holliday was the Orioles’ first-round pick in 2022 (No. 1 overall) and he rocketed through the Orioles system, as he batted .323/.442/.499/.941 with 30 doubles, nine triples, 12 home runs, 75 RBI and 24 stolen bases. He made four minor-league stops last season, his first in the minors, and finished up at Triple-A Norfolk.
