Heston Kjerstad’s Orioles story has drifted into a strange, empty place. Once a premium draft pick and one of the biggest bets Mike Elias ever made, he now looks like a player without a lane in Baltimore and, maybe, without one at all.
That’s the uncomfortable part here: even in a season where the Orioles have again fallen short and again struggled to turn talent into production at the major league level, Kjerstad still isn’t part of the picture. He isn’t being discussed much, he isn’t being featured, and he doesn’t seem to have a role waiting for him.
Kjerstad was the second first-round pick Elias ever made, and he was drafted second overall in 2020. But the promise that came with that kind of pedigree has gone nowhere.
He will be 28 when spring training starts, assuming there is a spring training at all given the labor situation, and he has only 285 MLB at bats. He has not played in the majors since June 6, 2025, and he has only 167 total plate appearances in 2025-2026.
That absence is striking enough on its own. It gets worse when you consider the Orioles’ lineup has been the biggest disappointment in baseball two years running.
There was a point where moving him at the trade deadline for some kind of lottery ticket would have at least made some sense. Instead, he stayed put, and now even with September roster expansion coming, it would be a surprise if he got a look.
The Orioles are likely to keep three catchers and add just one position player. With Christian Encarnacion-Strand hitting well up here and Blaze Alexander possibly ready to come off the Injured List next week, that may be the move.
The arm from Norfolk could be Nestor German.
The broader context makes the whole thing look even stranger. Jeremiah Jackson got an extended look over two MLB seasons in Baltimore without offering any defensive ability, while Kjerstad - who is simply a DH - can’t even get a sniff.
And yet the performance in Triple-A hasn’t exactly been nothing. Since July 1, Kjerstad has hit .294/.364/.529 with eight homers and 27 driven in over 38 games. Even that hasn’t earned him a mention.
When the Tides open play again tonight, he will be playing in his 234 game at the AAA level.
There have been explanations along the way. Covid-realted illnesses slowed his arrival, and injury luck has not helped.
He was also someone the Orioles refused to sell high on in trade talks, and someone they could never teach to catch and track a flyball. Add in the trouble keeping him healthy, and the picture gets even uglier.
For a player with this kind of draft status, it’s hard not to see the wasted opportunity. Another casualty of the Mike Elias Error. Another forgotten mistake.
The clearest takeaway is also the bleakest one: the Orioles don’t appear to have a plan for Heston Kjerstad. And it’s fair to assume they never really did.
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