SARASOTA, Fla. — A long, thick orange band wrapped around Jackson Holliday’s waist. He was barefoot, a white backwards hat perched on his head, and his arms gripped the elevated barbell in front of him. But instead of preparing for another squat, Holliday extended his legs as though he was a sprinter preparing to hear the starting gun sound.

And then he burst forward — one rapid movement, knee coming forward even as the band held him back, in a thrust that simulated what would be the first step of an all-out sprint.

In a gymnasium in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Holliday spent two days a week this winter relearning how to run. He’s always been a fast kid, and in his first taste of Major League Baseball last season with the Orioles, Holliday immediately cemented himself in the 95th percentile in average sprint speed.

But Holliday wasn’t satisfied with how his rookie season panned out. He struggled when he arrived, and while he found better results at the plate toward the end of the season, he entered the winter as a player with much to prove.

He’s the son of Matt Holliday, a seven-time All-Star. He was the top overall draft pick in 2022. He was the top-rated prospect in baseball. There has always been an intense focus on Holliday, and he hasn’t shied away from that spotlight. Instead, this winter, Holliday took a holistic approach to training so that when the spotlight lands on him again this season, he’ll be even more ready for the moment.

“I give him credit, because he’s trying to improve every aspect of his game. A lot of athletes might, in his case, be like, ‘I’m fast enough. This is good,’” said Michael Drach, the running performance coach in Tulsa who worked with Jackson and his younger brother, Ethan, this offseason. But Jackson wasn’t satisfied with his baseline level of speed.

“If every athlete on that team can improve their speed by a tiny bit, that can really have a major outcome on the season,” Drach continued. “Jackson has taken that approach on himself, like, ‘I can be a much better player if I can improve a little bit on my speed.’”

So, twice a week, Holliday worked with Drach on what might have felt like basics. He did that on top of adding muscle weight — eating ground beef for breakfast helped bring him to 200 pounds — and refining a swing adjustment centered on a toe tap rather than a leg kick.

Because of it all, since Holliday arrived in Sarasota for Orioles spring training, he has looked like a player poised to break out.

To get there, though, he revisited something he has done since he was a toddler: running. Barefoot, backwards hat on, Holliday hopped on the ball of his foot. He jogged while exaggerating how high his knees rise. He worked on one step at a time, formulating how to get the most out of each stride.

And early on in spring training, Holliday has carried those lessons with Drach onto the diamond. Almost every time he reaches first base, Holliday takes off for second. The increase in stolen base attempts will taper off when games matter — the Orioles recognize the difference between aggression and foolhardiness — but even being one step faster this year could lead to a more dynamic Holliday.

“I did a lot of work in the offseason,” Holliday said. “I might as well see if it paid off.”

The need for speed

Just for the sake of trying, Holliday picked up a basketball this winter and wondered if he still had hops. In high school, when he played basketball, Holliday could rise up and dunk — no small feat, considering he is listed, perhaps slightly generously, at 6 feet.

Up he went, palming the ball, and slammed it home.

“Still got it,” Holliday said.

More so than the dopamine hit that accompanies a dunk, though, the practice showed the burst in Holliday’s legs. He has tried to maximize their output, and in working with Drach, Holliday focused on his vertical and horizontal power output as a way to improve his explosive pace.

But before Holliday could turn his leg strength into more speed, he needed to correct his form. A slight adjustment, focusing on how his foot lands and the way it pushes off, can maximize the power output.

“Speed is a pretty simple formula: How much force can you put in the ground in the least amount of time? And that force has to be applied in the right direction,” Drach said. “A lot of times, bad mechanics will cause your foot to hit the ground differently and hit the ground inefficiently. So the first thing we did was clean up those mechanics, and he’s such a good athlete, we did some of the basics pretty quickly.

“And then it was making sure his foundation is strong enough to handle the force in the ground,” Drach continued.

That’s when attention shifted away from purely measuring sprint speed — although they did that too — toward exercises that would solidify Holliday’s foot and ankle strength.

He did sets of one-legged box jumps, balancing on one foot before propelling himself upward, landing on that same foot. At other times, they made use of resistance training, attaching a band around Holliday’s waist that pulls him back even as he sprints forward. And to give Holliday a target for which to aim, Drach used tennis balls in certain drills, prompting Holliday to race around a set of cones to catch the ball before it bounced for a second time.

“I hadn’t done it before,” Holliday said of the resistance running training. “I used to just go out there and what I had, I had.”

What he had was pretty good. Holliday’s fastest recorded sprint speed in a one-second window last season was 30.4 feet per second, per Statcast. In the Tulsa training center, Drach set up Holliday on several measurement devices. On one, which he calls a “Flying 10,” recording devices find the average sprint speed Holliday ran between the 20- and 30-yard marks of a 30-yard dash.

Holliday’s highest average speed this winter was 30.83 feet per second, Drach said.

For context, the fastest average sprint speed recorded in 2024 belonged to Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. at 30.5 feet per second (Holliday’s average was 29.4 feet per second, just five tenths of a second behind Orioles burner Jorge Mateo).

“You can see each week, like, ‘Wow, on this heavy resistance [exercise], you ran a whole mile per hour faster,’ for example,” Drach said of Holliday’s training, which lasted a little over a month this winter. “We’re tracking progress there. Not only is he feeling it, but he’s seeing his times and his metrics improve as well.”

Being more aggressive on the basepaths

Holliday took off on the first move from Phillies left-hander Cristopher Sánchez and slid in safely at second base on Sunday. The 21-year-old had just rifled a 102.5-mph single off the 2024 All-Star, then measured Sánchez’s delivery and took a chance.

Holliday has been doing that frequently this spring. He has four stolen base attempts in five games, and while he has been caught twice, manager Brandon Hyde doesn’t mind.

“I don’t care how many times he gets thrown out. We’ll calm that down as we go. But I want him to look to go, like a lot of our guys,” Hyde said. “I want him to be as aggressive as possible.”

Hyde and general manager Mike Elias have encouraged several players to take more chances on the bases this spring, hoping that it translates to more steals in the regular season. Baltimore ranked eighth in average sprint speed last season, but the Orioles finished tied for 18th with 98 stolen bases.

As Baltimore aims to create more scoring opportunities, the running game will be vital. And a player of Holliday’s speed will be a central piece of it. In conversations with Hyde and others, Holliday said a tally “north of 20” stolen bases is within reach.

“I think everybody thinks I can get about 20 or 30,” Holliday said, “which would be a great goal.”

But there’s more to stealing a base than pure speed — even though that helps. Earlier in camp, when former Orioles infielder Brian Roberts was a guest coach, he worked with Holliday and others on how to establish productive leads and improve first moves from first and second. Roberts, who stole an American League-best 50 bases in 2007, is worth listening to.

So is Cedric Mullins. The outfielder has swiped at least 30 bases in three of the last four seasons. And while Mullins hasn’t had a specific one-on-one conversation with Holliday about technique, that could happen soon.

“A combination of instincts, timing of the pitcher, having some knowledge of what his usual tendencies are, and trusting your jump,” Mullins said. “Putting that all together will get you a few in there. And some speed helps. Speed 100% helps, but it’s not the end-all, be-all.”

That’s why Holliday is taking off so frequently this spring. He knows he’ll have to dial back his aggression sooner rather than later, but the freedom to take off at his prerogative has been exhilarating and informative — reading pitchers and their pickoff moves is a never-ending education.

What’s aiding him in this quest are the drills done in Tulsa, with resistance bands and a return to the basics with his running form. And he’s not about to slow down now.

“Talking to Hyder and [first base coach Anthony] Sanders, we’re really understanding the circumstance and when they want to run,” Holliday said. “I’m going to go until they tell me not to.”