By Michaela Gordoni
Ethan Holliday is walking the same path as his brother, Jackson, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 MLB draft.
Ethan is a potential top pick this year, and like Jackson three years earlier, he was named the Baseball America High School Player of the Year, Sports Spectrum reported.
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The brothers’ dad is seven-time All-Star Matt Holliday. Ethan had a .611 batting average and 19 home runs. He played for the Team USA under-18 team in 2024 and the under-15 team in 2022
Despite all the accolades, Ethan doesn’t have a big head. He says his identity is “100%, no doubt, rooted through Christ.”
“I feel like in the last three or so years, I’ve gotten to find where my identity really is,” he said. “So many people can get caught up in the game, get caught up in life, losing their identity in sports or things that are worldly. When I truly found where my identity was in Christ, and that’s where I’m centered, that’s who I am, my life has been incredible.”
He says he has an unexplainable peace, knowing that God is in control of his life.
“That’s a confidence, that’s a way of life you wish everyone can have,” he said. “Navigating through sports and life, if I didn’t have Christ as my center, I don’t know how I could ever do it.”
Ethan’s Instagram bio boasts “Jesus is King,” and his actions show his belief in that. Every morning, the athlete listens to a devotional podcast and to worship music. He ends his busy days with ten minutes of prayer time.
But “sometimes when life gets crazy, it’s an hour, hour and a half, where I shut everything off and it’s just me in my room in the dark, just talking to the Lord and really just feeling the Holy Spirit,” he said. “That’s huge for me.”
Related: MLB All-Star Matt Holliday Shares Testimony of Faith
“I need that time even if it’s traveling for a summer event, or wherever I’m at, I need time with the Lord. I need that peace. I need that comfort and that gets me through days where sports aren’t going good, life gets a little crazy,” he said. “To just be able to silence that noise with the voice of the Lord, that’s powerful.”
Ethan has to meet with several teams as part of the draft process, and he takes advantage of those opportunities.
“I get to do these draft interviews with these guys who we’ve never met and they’ll ask me questions, and I get to share just a little bit about the Gospel,” he said. “I don’t know where they come from, I don’t know what phase of life they’re in, but you never know.”
Of playing baseball with Jackson, Ethan said, “It’s awesome, getting to share something like that with your brother, who you are super close with — and we actually got to play together.”
Ethan played third base his freshman year at Stillwater, Oklahoma, High School, while Jackson played shortstop. Now, Ethan plays shortstop.
“We’ve got a family business in Stillwater, and baseball is kind of just what we love to do,” Ethan said. “So it’s a real honor to share that with him.”
The MLB draft will start July 13-14 in Atlanta. Jackson has a game July 13 with the Orioles but hopes to be home after that to celebrate Ethan’s draft.
Ethan looks up to Jackson, and if he is the top pick, the brothers would join Peyton and Eli Manning as the only brothers to each be drafted No. 1 overall in American pro sports.
“I’m excited,” Jackson told Sports Spectrum. “He’s put himself in a pretty awesome position. I’m really looking forward to what the Lord has in store for big E.”
Matt, who raised his boys in the faith, said he is proud of where his sons are in their baseball careers.
Read Next: Baseball Stars Jackson, Ethan Holliday Play ‘for an Audience of One’
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