To finally reach the majors, Orioles utility man Jeremiah Jackson had to embrace being present

PHILADELPHIA — Jeremiah Jackson finds the irony of his emotions now, years later. They fit into a box that can be labeled “be careful what you wish for.” The infielder, then with the Los Angeles Angels, wanted nothing more than to get out of Single-A ball and reach Double-A.

Then he spent four seasons in Double-A, always looking at the green grass up a level in the minor leagues, yet unable to make the next step in a rapidly stagnating career.

“When you play like that, it’s hard to be where your feet are and win the moment,” Jackson said. “And for me, it’s been learning, if I’m in Low-A, Double-A, Triple-A, the big leagues, I’ve still got to play the game. I’ve got to dominate every second I’m there, wherever it’s at, and really be where my feet are.”

Where his feet are has changed much in the past few seasons — and it hasn’t always been in an upward trajectory. Jackson, taken by the Angels in the second round of the 2018 draft, was traded five years later to the New York Mets. A year later, the Mets released Jackson after he posted a .618 on-base-plus-slugging percentage with their Double-A affiliate.

By the time he arrived in the Orioles organization as a minor league free agent last November, Jackson had done the hard miles of minor league life.

“It’s definitely not how I would’ve written it up,” Jackson said. But there’s no changing his story — and now, playing in the major leagues for Baltimore affirms two things. One, his long-held belief that he is good enough to reach the highest level. And two, that a mental shift was ultimately the change required.

Once Jackson escaped Double-A for Triple-A in June, he looked back on four seasons at the same level with a different perspective than impatience. “At the time, it sucked, and I was always trying to look ahead,” Jackson said. But now? He realizes that thinking small can lead to bigger places.

“I like to be where my feet are, and that’s something I’ve done this year that I haven’t in the past,” Jackson said.

It helps that his feet, currently, are in the major leagues. Since his call-up Friday to fill a roster spot following a trade-deadline sell-off, Jackson has started five straight games. The infielder was put into a difficult spot, interim manager Tony Mansolino said, when he was pressed into right field duties at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Jackson missed a routine fly ball.

But with a bat in his hands, he’s much more comfortable. Jackson recorded one of Baltimore’s five hits in a loss Tuesday to the Philadelphia Phillies, and he’s hitting 4-for-15 overall. Who knows how long this opportunity will last? What Jackson has learned, though, is to take advantage of however long it may.

“A lot of guys in this game, they shouldn’t be forgotten about,” said Dalton Hurd, Baltimore’s hitting coordinator who oversees the minor leagues. “You see guys like that kind of get written off early in careers if things don’t pan out right away, and they disappear pretty quick. But that’s what happens, walking proof of what happens when you don’t do that to guys and keep giving them chances. Let them grow up, let them mature, and now look at him.”

The blossoming of Jackson, a 25-year-old utility man, is one of the more positive outcomes for a club experiencing a dismal season. How he got here took fewer mechanical tweaks than mental ones.

Earlier in his career, as Jackson attempted to force his way out of Double-A ball with the Angels and Mets by producing at a high level, his one-track mind on a “perfect swing” hampered him.

“When I was trying to be perfect with my swing, I would miss pitches I should be hitting. And whenever you’re thinking in the box, you’re taking away a lot of hand-eye coordination and reaction time,” Jackson said. “The more I was thinking, the less my ability and my skills could kind of work and be there.”

Ultimately, however, Jackson didn’t really have a clear understanding of what his perfect swing might be. A constant refrain in scouting reports from Baseball America and other outlets echoed Jackson’s lack of an approach. One, from Baseball America in 2023, read in part: “He still lacks a consistent plan and approach at the plate and is a well below-average hitter.”

Part of that is why Jackson had an elevated strikeout rate earlier in his career. Since then, he has combated that issue in two ways: developing a better understanding of which pitches are in his sweet spot, and using an aggressive mentality to avoid two-strike counts.

“Obviously, the walks aren’t high, but neither are the strikeouts,” Jackson said.

When he arrived with the Orioles, Hurd said, the years of swing changes didn’t fix much, because Jackson “never really developed a true identity of what it looked like to himself.”

“And when you don’t know what you’re good at and what your swing really looks like as a hitter, it’s really hard to gain an approach based off that,” Hurd said. “You’re kind of just throwing darts at nothing.”

So the Orioles gave him a target.

They didn’t overhaul his swing. Instead, Hurd and others illustrated to Jackson how his swing looked, what it does best when looking this way, and how to move that into game situations. And they encouraged him to be himself: If that meant being aggressive early in counts on pitches he felt he can handle, then by all means, swing away.

“You can go see the numbers and look up the swing rates, and he’s definitely swinging more,” Hurd said. “Those things are usually just a byproduct of these other areas and confidence, the mental game.”

The aforementioned numbers are great. In Triple-A this year, Jackson hit .377 with a 1.073 OPS. He only walked six times in 40 games, but his strikeouts (20 in 171 plate appearances) weren’t frequent, either. According to Prospect Savant, Jackson swung at 78.91% of pitches in the zone — the 96th percentile of Triple-A.

But he can’t be haphazard in his swing decisions.

“For me, just being a bit better in the box with my swing decisions, which, early on, I would swing at everything,” Jackson said. “And even when I got to Triple-A, I still kind of swung freely. Having the approach of competing and swinging at what I think I can do damage on has really helped out a lot.”

It remains to be seen if there’s a long-term place for Jackson on the Orioles. However, with the team dealing Ramón Urías to the Houston Astros, there is a hole next season for a utility infielder. Jackson can play second, third and shortstop. And while his outfield excursion in Chicago left much to be desired, he could improve there, too.

With a bat, there’s plenty to like. And while it has taken years for the former second-round selection to come into his own, now that he’s here, Jackson isn’t altering the freedom with which he played since signing with the Orioles organization.

“When you struggle for a long time in the same league, you struggle with the same stuff, something’s got to give,” Jackson said. “I’m not going to try to put a perfect swing on it every time. I’m going to just try to compete, and really that’s been the biggest game changer for me. Just competing.”