Jackson Holliday Needs Wrist Surgery For TFCC Tear

The Orioles got 2 injury updates on Wednesday and neither was good. Manager Craig Albernaz said Jackson Holliday has a TFCC tear in his left wrist and will have surgery. Catcher Samuel Basallo is headed to the concussion IL, and Heston Kjerstad is being recalled to take his roster spot. For a team that has spent 2026 watching its young core go in and out of the trainer's room, it's a rough way to close out September.

Andy Kostka

@afkostka

Orioles injury updates: - Catcher Samuel Basallo will head to the concussion injured list. Heston Kjerstad will be recalled - Jackson Holliday will have surgery on his left wrist. Craig Albernaz said it’s a TFCC tear. Holliday should be ready for spring training

The TFCC is the triangular fibrocartilage complex, the cartilage and ligaments on the pinky side of the wrist that take a beating on every swing. It sounds worse than it is, though. According to reports, it isn't a complete tear, and the surgery is being described as a quick cleanup job. Holliday isn't expected back this season, but that's the only real damage here.

Foul Territory

@FoulTerritoryTV

Jackson Holliday will undergo surgery on his left wrist, per @JakeDRill. 10-week recovery is expected and shouldn't impact his 2027 timeline.

The number that matters is 10 weeks. Surgery happens in the next week or so, so he'd finish rehab around early December and have the whole winter left before camp. Everyone involved is saying the same thing: this shouldn't touch his 2027 timeline. Getting the wrist fixed now, with a lost season about to end anyway, is the right call.

Still, it's another wrist in a year full of them for Holliday. Earlier this season he dealt with a hamate injury in his right hand, and injuries held him to 98 games. He hit.229/.300/.340 in those games, which is a long way off from what you expect from a former No. 1 overall pick. You have to wonder how much the wrists had to do with that.

Basallo's news might be the scarier one. The 22-year-old catcher took a foul tip off the mask Monday and left the game to get checked for a concussion. He was out of the lineup for Game 1 of Wednesday's doubleheader against the Blue Jays, and now he's officially on the IL. He'd already been fighting a shoulder problem this season. Concussions and catchers are a bad combination, so how he comes out of this matters a lot more than the rest of 2026 does.

Kjerstad had been with the team on the taxi squad, so he was the obvious move once Basallo went down. It gets him back in the big leagues for the final stretch, and for Orioles fans that's about the only good thing to come out of Wednesday. Now it's about getting to the offseason without anything else breaking and hoping Holliday shows up to spring training healthy.