Heston Kjerstad takes advantage of rare opportunity against Royals on Saturday

Heston Kjerstad still has a lot to prove at the highest level. He had more than his share of strong moments in 2024 but all told, he played in just 39 games with the Orioles while working around issues stemming from a concussion sustained last summer.

Kjerstad hit .253/.351/.394 with the Orioles last year. While he struggled to impact the ball at times, his plate discipline looked good and there were flashes of the dominant outfielder that we'd become accustomed to seeing down in the minors, leaving lots of intrigue about his potential performance in 2025.

To this point though, manager Brandon Hyde and the Orioles have been using Kjerstad in an almost strict platoon role. Prior to Saturday's matchup against the Royals, Kjerstad had gotten just 3 plate appearances against left handed pitchers. Even going back to last year, just 16 of his 114 plate appearances came against southpaws.

The interesting thing is that Kjerstad didn't have extreme platoon splits in the minors. He hit .246/.342/.410 against them last year, and crushed them to the tune of a .304/.360/.525 slash line in 2023 in a fairly large sample size. Despite that success, the Orioles have yet to show faith in him in an everyday type role.

Orioles' outfielder Heston Kjerstad delivers in rare opportunity against a LHP

Well, Kjerstad got another chance to face a lefty on Saturday and he delivered, knocking in his fourth RBI of the young season on a liner over the head of Royals' second baseman Maikel Garcia. Royals' manager Matt Quatraro opted to bring in lefty Sam Long to face Kjerstad in the 6th, who came to the plate with men on first and third with two outs.

Kjerstad poked a first pitch slider up the middle, bringing center fielder Cedric Mullins in from third to give the Orioles a 3-0 lead and kicking off a four-run rally in the top of the sixth.

The biggest thing there was seeing Hyde have enough faith in Kjerstad to leave him in to face Long. There have been other situations this year where Hyde has gone to the bench to relieve Kjerstad in lieu of having him go to the plate against a left hander. With Colton Cowser on the IL for an extended stretch and Gunnar Henderson's return cutting Dylan Carlson out of the active lineup, Hyde may have to give Kjerstad some extra reps against lefties. Ultimately, that'll be good for Kjerstad and it'll give the O's some clarity on whether he's capable of doing the job full time.

Kjerstad did face another lefty in Daniel Lynch IV in the ninth. He slapped a ball into left field that fell just short of MJ Melendez's glove, but due to some confusion on the basepaths and the runners thinking Melendez caught the ball, both Cedric Mullins and Ramón Laureano were thrown out on the play.

So while it'll go down on the score sheet as a 1-5 night for Kjerstad, it really should have been 2-5 with his two hits coming against lefties. With any luck, Hyde and the Orioles will see that he's not just a strict platoon-type guy and start giving him more run while Cowser is sidelined.