The Baltimore Orioles boast an impressive collection of talent when it comes to young position players.
Adley Rutschman, Ryan Mountcastle, Jackson Holliday, Jordan Westburg, Colton Cowser… the list goes on and on if we include some Triple-A prospects like Coby Mayo, Connor Norby, and Kyle Stowers.
One of the names that you could comfortably add to the list is Heston Kjerstad.
Kjerstad has 10 home runs in 21 Triple-A games this season.
He had a cup of coffee in the majors last season and had a decent .748 OPS in a short cameo.
There was no room for him to open the 2024 season, though.
However, after a few games of punishing the ball in Triple-A, the Orioles are bringing him back up, according to B/R Walk-Off.
The Orioles are calling up Heston Kjerstad pic.twitter.com/c2q3ssb25O
— B/R Walk-Off (@BRWalkoff) April 23, 2024
Kjerstad doesn’t have too much defensive value: he is a first baseman/corner outfielder not really known for his glove.
What he can do, however, is flat-out hit.
Kjerstad was slashing an incredible .349/.431/.744 in the hitter-friendly International League.
Still, that’s some impressive performance: according to wRC+, he was 89 percent better than the average hitter there (189 wRC+).
Kjerstad strikes out too much to think about a future in which he can be a consistent .300 hitter when he is fully developed, but he does boast 30-homer power and impressive on-base skills.
That should be enough to keep him in the exciting Orioles lineup for several years, barring an injury.
He will do damage with Baltimore, who just keeps producing impact minor leaguers and feeding their improving World Series aspirations with them.
