Ethan Holliday Carves Path To 2025 MLB Draft Amid Great Expectations

Image credit: (Photo by Eddie Kelly / Baseball America)

All his life, Ethan Holliday has had a firsthand view of how to handle expectations.

He grew up the son of seven-time MLB all-star Matt Holliday. He practiced, prepared and played with his older brother Jackson, who was drafted No. 1 overall by the Orioles in 2022, the summer after Ethan’s freshman year of high school.

Now, as he heads into his senior season at Stillwater (Okla.) High, the 17-year-old shortstop has to manage expectations of his own as the top prep prospect for the 2025 draft.

“He’s obviously had the opportunity to watch Jackson and how Jackson’s handled everything.” Matt Holliday said. “So he has a good template and a good role model to look up to with Jackson, and how he’s handled it all has made it easier for him.”

But with the expectations, and the family lineage, also come the comparisons.

It’s hard to find a story about Ethan’s professional prospects that doesn’t in turn compare him and his older brother—for better or worse.

For Ethan and his family, it has nothing to do with one being better than the other. It’s simply about baseball, and Ethan now getting to chase a dream that his brother has gotten a taste of already.

“I saw some of that stuff with my dad, just some of the noise and the hype, but I’ve kind of gotten used to it over the last couple of years—all the noise and the spotlight on you during games and events,” Ethan said. “So nothing’s really shocking. I think I’m prepared for it. And I’m really just looking forward to what’s next.”

In Boston, he got a glimpse of what might be next.

Being on the field at Fenway Park as Jackson took batting practice prior to his April 10 MLB debut, Ethan was excited for both his brother and for his own dreams.

“Any baseball player who sits in the stands of a professional baseball game will say, ‘Well, I want to be here one day,’ but it’s a little different when it’s your brother, your best friend, on the field,” Ethan said.

“Seeing him make his big league debut at Fenway Park . . . it really hit me like, ‘Wow, he made his dream come true.’ And I believe that I have the ability to be there one day. It was a really cool moment for me and my family.”

In order to join his brother playing professional baseball, Ethan understands he has to continue to work on the one glaring difference between him and the 6-foot Jackson.

Ethan has to “bend down a little further,” as he joked, when it comes to playing shortstop at 6-foot-4. Being taller than the average big league shortstop, Ethan is continually honing his craft on defense.

“He’s a big kid for shortstop, so he’s constantly working on mobility and getting comfortable playing at short, but I think, generally, he’s just trying to get better,” Matt said. “You’re constantly trying to work on the craft of playing defense, of baserunning, of hitting and approach.

“There’s plenty to always get better at in baseball.”

Holliday’s willingness to improve stands out to Marty Lees, his head coach at Stillwater High. Lees is a 25-year coaching veteran who returned to prep baseball in 2023 after 20 years coaching in the college ranks, including a stint as head coach at Washington State.

“He is something special in the way that he prepares,” Lees said. “I mean, his skill set is good. I think that’s obvious to any scout, any team or any other coach, but I’m not sure if people really know the time and effort that he puts into being a really, really good baseball player.”

For Lees, it’s not just that Ethan is highly coachable, it’s also his ability to quickly pick up new skills or fundamentals, or how he truly embraces when something he’s been taught works in a game—the “ah ha moment,” as Lees put it.

“There’s things that Ethan Holliday’s doing that had taken me up to a couple of years to get (college) kids who went on to be pro baseball players to do,” Lees said. “. . . He’s always picking the brain of different ways to do things.”

Lees has deep ties with the Holliday family. He previously worked as an assistant coach for Ethan’s uncle Josh Holliday at Oklahoma State. He also worked as an assistant for Ethan’s grandfather Tom Holliday in the Cape Cod League.

Now, he’s enjoying working with a uniquely special talent in the family.

“I feel comfortable in saying—because I’ve been doing it for almost 30 years and coached a lot of college players, a lot of kids who went to Major League Baseball—I really do believe that Ethan will be the best player I ever coach,” Lees said.

Despite the high praise and the constant attention that he’s had over the past few years, Ethan is taking the mental approach of blocking out the noise, just as he saw his brother do a few years prior.

Jackson was BA High School Player of the Year in 2022, the year the Orioles drafted him No. 1 overall. If Ethan joins his brother as the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft, then the Hollidays will become the first brother tandem to both go 1-1.

The Uptons currently hold that distinction of highest-drafted brothers. The Rays drafted B.J. Upton No. 2 overall in 2002. The D-backs chose Justin Upton first overall in a loaded 2005 draft.

Ethan knows that the moment he lets the outside distractions become a part of his everyday routine of being a top baseball prospect is precisely when things can start to go sideways.

“I’d say you think about it a little more when you’re going through a funk, but you try not to think about it,” Ethan said. “It really helps you to just keep your mind on the game, keep your mind on your teammates and just enjoying the game and being out there with your boys. If you get caught up in it, it can hurt you.”