The Colorado Rockies selected high school shortstop Ethan Holliday with the fourth overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft on Sunday. The pick continues a baseball dynasty with the Holliday family — and lands the young shortstop with the same team that drafted his father.
Holliday, the second-best player on Yahoo Sports’ Draft Board, was seen as a potential No. 1 overall pick. That honor instead went to Eli Willits, also a high school shortstop, who was selected first overall by the Washington Nationals.
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Holliday is the younger brother of Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jackson Holliday, the first overall pick of the 2022 MLB Draft, and the son of former MLB All-Star Matt Holliday. They have one more brother, 2027 prospect Reed Holliday, in reserve.
Notably, Matt Holliday was drafted by the Rockies in the seventh round of the 1998 draft. He made his MLB debut with Colorado in 2004 and played five years with the team. He then spent time with the A’s, Cardinals and Yankees before ending his career in Colorado, returning to the Rockies in 2018 before retiring.
Ethan Holliday might have more upside than his brother
When Jackson Holliday was emerging as a top prospect as a high schooler, there were whispers that MLB teams might like his younger brother even more.
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To be clear, Ethan is a very different player than Jackson. The case for Jackson as a future All-Star hinges on a combination of bat-to-ball skills and middle-infield defense, elevated by an advanced feel for the game under his father’s tutelage.
Ethan, meanwhile, has a frame more similar to his father, measuring in at 6-foot-4, 210 pounds (Jackson is listed at 6-foot, 185). That would be massive for a shortstop but not unprecedented, given the likes of Corey Seager and Elly De La Cruz. Still, Ethan is expected by many to land at third base and provide plenty of defensive value there.
There will be more pressure on Ethan’s bat if he ends up at third, but he seems more than equipped to oblige there. Holliday has the highest offensive upside of any player in this draft class, from monster exit velocities to a feel for the strike zone similar to his brother’s.
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Ethan laid waste to the high school competition in Oklahoma this season, posting a 2.046 OPS and 16 home runs in 118 plate appearances across 32 games for Stillwater High School.
… but there’s some risk
Holliday has been seen as a top prospect for years, but there is a catch. Yahoo Sports’ Jake Mintz noted earlier this month that Holliday’s stock took a hit during the showcase circuit last summer, when he whiffed on 37% of in-zone fastballs, signaling some major swing-and-miss concerns.
However, as Jordan Shusterman laid out for Yahoo Sports, Holliday’s weak showcase was explained as a badly timed, temporary flaw in his swing mechanics, which has since been corrected. His future in baseball likely hinges on whether that’s true.
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Ethan Holliday joins the Rockies at a major low point
While there’s a nice family element to Holliday’s selection, it’s a tough time to be joining the Rockies. Colorado has been historically bad this season and is currently on pace to surpass the record for losses set by the Chicago White Sox last year.
The Rockies fired manager Bud Black in May, after the team fell to a 7-33 start to the season. Since then, the team’s situation hasn’t improved much: Colorado didn’t win its first series of the year until early June.
After another loss Sunday to the Cincinnati Reds, the Rockies enter the All-Star break with a league-worst 22-74 record — and not just league-worst but 10 full wins behind the second-worst team, the White Sox.
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It’ll take a bit of time for Holliday to work his way up to the majors, but Colorado certainly needs the help sooner rather than later.
