The Orioles are going to give this former top prospect another chance to answer a career-defining question

After just two games at Double-A Bowie, the Orioles decided to move Heston Kjerstad to Triple-A Norfolk to finish his rehab assignment as he works to recover from a hamstring injury he suffered towards the end of spring training. The Orioles just added him to the 60-day IL, but with how long he's already been out, all this does is make it so that the earliest he can return is May 24th, which is about when he would have been returning anyway. Assuming he gets healthy and ramped up, the fact that he's in Triple-A and on the 40-man means that he's a lock to get some major league playing time at some point this season. The question is: will injuries force the Orioles' hand, or will Kjerstad's play make them promote him?

Kjerstad is an enigma. At every step of his career, injury, illnessa nd misfortune have been there to trip him up. He is 27 years old now, and despite debuting in 2023, he only has 285 career at-bats. If Samuel Basallo plays two more weeks, he'll have more than that.

Heston Kjerstad is going to get at least one more chance to prove himself with the Orioles

What Kjerstad has done in his scattered big league opportunities doesn't make you think this is a someone that the Orioles need to get back to the big leagues but becuase of everything that has happened to him it's really hard to determine if his numbers are bad becuase he's bad or becuase he's been snake bitten by some of the strangest afflciations to befall a major league baseball player.

In his first taste of big league action, he wasn't jaw-dropping, but he looked better than most of the Orioles' top prospects have in their first taste of big league action and good enough to make the playoff roster. In 2024, it looked like Kjerstad was putting it together and was just starting to get everyday playing time when Clay Holmes beaned him in the head with a 98 mph fastball.

At the moment Kjerstad got hit by that ball, he was slashing .314/.417/.529 on the season, and in the three weeks leading up to the injury, he was even better than that, slashing .414/.514/.759. He looked like he was going to be the player the Orioles dreamed he'd be when they took him with the second overall pick. When he came back from concussion protocol, he clearly wasn't that guy anymore, and he hit .188/.278/.250 the rest of the year.

When those struggles followed him into 2025, and he was demoted back to Triple-A in early June, it looked like maybe he was never going to be that guy again, but then he just ended up missing the rest of the season with a serious illness. The same question comes up again: Was he playing badly because he's bad, or because he was sick?

This year in spring training, he said he was fully healthy and got off to a hot start. It looked like maybe his struggles were behind him, but then he cooled off and looked lost again towards the end of spring training, leading people to believe that the hot start had simply been a blip. Then it was announced that he had a fairly serious hamstring injury, so the question returns: Did he struggle in the last few weeks of spring training because he's not a good hitter or because he had a hamstring injury?

At a certain point, if you have to ask, are you bad or are you injured for years, it might be the best move to just move on and let someone else figure it out, but the Orioles haven't done that, and with Kjerstad rehabbing in triple-A, he's going to get at least one more chance to prove that it's been the injuries all along.

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