Rockies grab Ethan Holliday, son of Matt and brother of Jackson, with No. 4 pick in MLB Draft

New York Times

10 hours ago

The Holliday family baseball legacy continued to grow Sunday, when the Colorado Rockies selected high school shortstop Ethan Holliday with the No. 4 pick in the MLB Draft.
Holliday, 18, becomes the third member of his family to be drafted, and the second to be selected in the first round. His older brother Jackson was picked No. 1 by the Baltimore Orioles in 2022, while their father, Matt, was a seventh-round pick of the Colorado Rockies in 1998. Now, Ethan joins the same franchise where his father rose to prominence some 20 years ago.
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Baseball runs deep in the Holliday family. Matt Holliday was a seven-time All-Star outfielder who played 15 seasons for the Rockies, Oakland Athletics, St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees.
Jackson Holliday reached the majors with Baltimore last season at the age of 20, appearing in 60 games and hitting .189. He is hitting .259 with 12 home runs and 14 doubles in 87 games so far this season.
Like Jackson, Ethan is a middle infielder. But while Jackson is listed at 6 feet, 185 pounds, Ethan is built more like his father, at 6-4, 200 pounds.
The slot value of the No. 4 pick is $8,770,900. The Rockies have a total bonus pool of $15,723,400 — the fifth-highest amount — for the first 10 rounds of the 20-round draft.
The Athletic's Keith Law ranked Ethan Holliday as the No. 1 prospect in the draft. Here's Law's scouting report.
'Holliday is probably the best-known player in the class, thanks to his famous father, Matt, and increasingly famous brother, Jackson, but also because there have been plenty of points in the past year-plus when Ethan has looked like the best prospect in the class.
'He has easy plus power already and projects to be more similar to his father in that regard than his brother, though he's not as advanced a hitter as Jackson was at the same age. Ethan has been inconsistent this spring at the plate, with his front side flying open as he tries too hard to get to that power, leaving him vulnerable to stuff on the outer third, although that's a fixable problem. He does know the strike zone, and rarely chased stuff out of the zone last summer and fall.
'He's big for shortstop but has great hands and a plus arm, showing better range this spring and more consistency on routine plays; if he moves to third base, it'll be because he outgrows short, not because of a lack of ability.
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'He's not a sure thing, given some of his swing-and-miss issues (such as on velocity up in the zone) and the mechanical adjustments he'll have to make, but he offers the best combination of upside and probability in the class.'
(Photo of Ethan Holliday: Sarah Phipps / The Oklahoman / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)