Heston Kjerstad Still Has No Present With The Orioles, And No Future

It’s fair to wonder if Heston Kjerstad, just the second first-round pick Mike Elias ever made and a player drafted second-overall in 2020, is ever going to play for the Baltimore Orioles again. Even in another lost season for the club, unable to be a true contender and yet still unable to develop talent at the MLB-level, Kjerstad has no part, no role, and, seemingly, no future.

Elias doesn’t mention him, and no one even really asks anymore. It would have made sense to let someone else have a crack at him at the trade deadline in exchange for some type of lottery ticket.

He is a unique player development fail for a front office that has made them it’s hallmark; breaking prospects in half is an overarching reverse superpower. Kjerstad will be 28 when spring training starts (if there is a spring training given the labor situation), he has just 285 MLB at bats and none since June 6, 2025 and just 167 total plate appearances in 2025-2026 at a time the major league lineup has been the biggest disappointment in baseball two years running.

None of this makes much sense, but Elias doesn’t make much sense in charge of an MLB franchise.

With rosters expanding in September, it would be pretty shocking it Kjerstad got a look even as the Norfolk Tides miserable campaign winds down. The Orioles will likely keep carrying three catchers, and add just one position player, and with Christian Encarnacion-Strand hitting well up here and Blaze Alexander possibly ready to come off the Injured List next week, that might be the move right there – simply adding Alexander and an arm from Norfolk (Nestor German would get my vote).

Gone Without A Trace

At a time when Jeremiah Jackson got an extended look over two MLB seasons in Baltimore without offering any defensive ability (Kjerstad is simply a DH), the fact that this former top prospect can’t get a sniff is telling. Since July 1 Kjerstad has a .294/.364/.529 slash, with eight homers and 27 driven in over 38 games. And that hasn’t gotten him a mention.

I don’t know what will. I don’t know why he is still here and wasn’t packaged with something early this month and it’s clear this organization ain’t the one to fix anyone at this level, let alone him. When the Tides open play again tonight, he will be playing in his 234 game at the AAA level.

Covid-realted illnesses stalled his arrival and he's had bad injury luck, but someone they refused to sell high on as part of myriad trade talks and someone they could never teach to catch and track a flyball and someone they had trouble keeping healthy (their training staff is a blight), probably would have done a heck of a lot better being draft a little later by a real organization.

Another casualty of the Mike Elias Error. Another forgotten mistake.

They clearly have no plan for him. And it's quite safe to assume they never did.

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