Orioles plan to recall outfield prospect Heston Kjerstad

The Orioles plan to recall outfield prospect Heston Kjerstad on Tuesday, a source with direct knowledge told The Baltimore Sun on Monday night.

Kjerstad, the No. 42 prospect in baseball, will be added to Baltimore’s 26-man roster after the club placed outfielder Austin Hays on the 10-day injured list with a calf strain Monday.

Kjerstad, 25, is hitting .349 with a 1.176 OPS for Triple-A Norfolk this season. He leads all Triple-A hitters with 10 home runs and 30 RBIs.

The left-handed slugger made his MLB debut in September, acclimating himself well with a .748 OPS and two homers in 13 games. He was entrenched in a competitive roster battle during spring training but narrowly lost out to fellow outfield prospect Colton Cowser and others.

The Orioles drafted Kjerstad with the No. 2 overall pick out of Arkansas in 2020. But his career was almost derailed before it could even begin because of the heart condition myocarditis, which caused him to miss the entire 2021 season. His return in 2022 was then delayed because of a severe hamstring strain.

“Had my myocarditis and my hamstring in the past I had to persevere through, but that’s part of being an athlete and just part of life,” Kjerstad said in September shortly before making his MLB debut. “You’ve just got to keep going. … Just stay focused on the main goal. Minor setback, major comeback.”

Kjerstad finally made his professional debut on June 10, 2022 — two years to the date of being drafted — with Low-A Delmarva, later reaching High-A but struggling with Aberdeen to end the 2022 campaign. But he won the Arizona Fall League Most Valuable Player Award. Once he proved he was healthy, he showed why the Orioles surprised the draft community by selecting him with the second pick. While his outfield defense remains a question and he isn’t known for his speed, Kjerstad carries better-than-average hit and power tools — ones that have been difficult to ignore as he’s crushed minor league pitching.

Between Double-A Bowie and Norfolk last season, Kjerstad slashed .303/.376/.528 — good for a .904 OPS — and served as a left-handed bench bat and part-time designated hitter down the stretch for Baltimore. He hit his first MLB home run on Sept. 15 and two days later celebrated with his new teammates as the Orioles clinched the club’s first playoff berth since 2016. Eleven days later, he celebrated once again after hitting an RBI double to help propel Baltimore to a 2-0 win over the Boston Red Sox and clinch the club’s first American League East title since 2014.

Kjerstad, the No. 5 prospect in Baltimore’s system, according to Baseball America, appeared to have an inside track to a roster spot this spring. But fellow outfield prospects Kyle Stowers and Cowser dominated Grapefruit League pitching to make the battle for Baltimore’s fourth outfield spot behind Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander as competitive as any on the team. Cowser ultimately won the job and has opened the season as one of MLB’s best breakout players, winning AL Player of the Week earlier this month and entering Monday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels with five home runs and a 1.195 OPS.

But Kjerstad didn’t sulk in Triple-A. He recorded a hit in 15 of 21 games with the Tides, had two homers in three separate games and tallied 10 RBIs in one contest. With a talented roster in Triple-A and a big league club that is among the AL’s best, Kjerstad’s path back to the majors was murky. But a calf injury to Hays, which manager Brandon Hyde said shouldn’t keep him out much longer than 10 days, opened a spot for an outfield. For Monday’s game on the West Coast, the Orioles selected the contract of catcher David Bañuelos and designated minor league outfielder Peyton Burdick for assignment.

Kjerstad joins an Orioles club full of current or former top prospects in Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Jackson Holliday, Jordan Wesburg and Cowser. It’s unclear what role Kjerstad will play given Hays hit right-handed and was mostly playing against left-handed pitchers, but Hyde’s lineups have featured constant mixing and matching.

It’s possible, though, that when Kjerstad starts his first game of the 2024 season, the Orioles’ lineup will contain the club’s first draft pick from 2019 to 2022: Rutschman, Kjerstad, Cowser and Holliday.