Orioles' Jeremiah Jackson just keeps hitting

SAN DIEGO – It keeps happening. In every game and every start that he makes.

Rookie Jeremiah Jackson slashed .323/.344/.484 last month in 96 plate appearances, his first in the majors. Of course, he stayed in the lineup Monday afternoon at Petro Park, shifting from third base to right field, and tied his brief-career high with three hits.

Batting second again last night, Jackson fell behind 0-2 to Yu Darvish in the first inning and pulled a sweeper into the left field seats. He’s homered in three of his last four games. And his fielder’s choice grounder in the eighth scored Dylan Beavers with an insurance run.

The Orioles won’t try to carry over his rookie status to 2026. He isn’t in any Top 100 prospect rankings. He might not break camp with the team next spring, though he’s making a solid case for it.

Jackson is in a different kind of phase as the season draws nearer to a merciful conclusion. The Orioles aren’t focused as much on exposing him to big league pitching as they are figuring out who he really is and whether he can fill a utility role next season.

Will he keep hitting, as he did at Triple-A Norfolk with a .377 average and 1.073 OPS in 40 games with Triple-A Norfolk? He hit .254 with a .703 OPS in 45 games with Double-A Chesapeake, and .205 with a .618 OPS in 122 games with Double-A Binghamton in 2024. He’s a career .250/.313/.471 hitter in seven minor league season.

Can he be trusted in the field, where he’s played six positions in his career? Jackson made two errors at third base Sunday in San Francisco and began last night with a minus-0.1 dWAR. Statcast calculated his outs above average at minus-2 outs in his limited sample size. Beavers replaced him in right field last night in the ninth.

Even if the bat is real and the Orioles unlocked something, they need to have the same confidence in his glove that they held with Ramón Urías.

The shopping list his winter probably will include a super-utility player, but Jackson still could make the team. He’ll have to compete for a job. He’s projected more as an outfielder and is a below-average runner, but his production from the right side of the plate is a plus.

“It’s been a lot of work,” Jackson said of his defense. “Got here and got put in right from the beginning, so now I feel a lot more comfortable and I think I’ve gotten a lot better. A lot of that just has to do with a lot of hard work and trying to get used to it.”

Two scouts from other organizations posed the same question about Jackson in separate conversations over the past week. They praised his hitting and asked, “But is it sustainable?”

One scout who watched the team in San Francisco noted how Jackson had “three non-competitive at-bats” on Saturday.

“But he also doubled and hit a home run, so …”

Jackson cleared the center field fence Monday in San Diego to break a 2-2 tie, and his 426-foot shot came against Adrian Morejon, who had surrendered one home run, to Cal Raleigh, in 61 2/3 innings this season.

“Sat on a slider first pitch from a pretty elite arm right there and went dead central in this ballpark,” said interim manager Tony Mansolino. “That’s kind of unusual here. So nice night there.”

Expect the unexpected from Jackson.

“Professionally, this is the best I’ve felt,” he said. “The mechanics are there. I think the main part is just competing in the box and not trying to do too much and just try to do my job and help the team win.”

Jackson totaled 32 hits through his first 24 career starts before last night, becoming the second player in team history to accomplish the feat. Bob Hale had 34 in 1955. Jackson also was one of only five players in the majors since 2020 with 32 or more hits through his first 24 career starts, joining Cincinnati’s Matt McLain (36 in 2023), Washington’s Joey Meneses (34 in 2022), Cleveland’s Oscar González (32 in 2022), and Pittsburgh’s Ke'Bryan Hayes (32 in 2020).

Collecting a hit in 18 consecutive starts after last night’s homer hadn’t been done by an Oriole since Cedric Mullins’ 20-game stretch in 2021.

“He's really impressive,” said catcher Samuel Basallo, the more heralded rookie. “I played against him last year, and to see the change he made this year and see how he's doing right now, it's just good for him. I'm happy for him.

“What he's doing here on the team, he's been helping the team more than anybody here, and that's great for him.”