GM Mike Elias details the ‘tricky’ spot he, Orioles are in after demoting Heston Kjerstad

The win-now Orioles are trying to strike a balance with recently demoted outfielder Heston Kjerstad and other top prospects -- getting them major league exposure but also regular at-bats.

Heston Kjerstad was on the Orioles’ roster for 17 games. He stepped to the plate only 17 times.

The lack of playing time might be surprising for a prospect of Kjerstad’s caliber — ranked No. 36 by Baseball America — but it wasn’t really. The Orioles are one of baseball’s best teams, and getting Kjerstad into the lineup would normally require taking out a proven big leaguer.

In an interview with The Baltimore Sun, Orioles general manager Mike Elias said he knew when he called up Kjerstad three weeks ago that playing time would be hard to come by and that sending him back down was a possibility.

“We have a really tough lineup to crack here right now, which is good,” Elias said Monday. “It was long enough without Heston getting regular playing time. We knew that was likely. This wasn’t a surprise. But after a certain amount of time goes by, you want to rotate things.”

Elias often describes his job as Baltimore’s top executive as a “balancing act.” With a team on pace to win 105 games and the top farm system in the sport, he must weigh winning in the present against developing prospects, maximizing their value and winning in the future — a task he said is “tricky.”

That tightrope is a credit to Elias and his front office. The Orioles developed this farm system and this American League-leading club largely because of the measured philosophy he and others brought to Baltimore from the Houston Astros. However, they’ve built up such a surplus that they can simply swap one outfield prospect for another, as Kyle Stowers was recalled Monday to replace Kjerstad.

Stowers will likely receive similarly limited playing time, and in three weeks, a new prospect could be in Baltimore. Jackson Holliday, the consensus top prospect in baseball, corner infielder Coby Mayo, second baseman/corner outfielder Connor Norby and now Kjerstad are all in Triple-A Norfolk putting up impressive numbers.

“The bottom line is we’re neck and neck for first place in the American League East,” Elias said. “We’re trying to have the best record that we can. First and foremost is winning the games up here. It’s hard to leapfrog the guys that are in our starting lineup right now.”

For Kjerstad, a left-handed hitter, to start regularly against righties, he would’ve needed to play over one of the following players: Ryan Mountcastle, Ryan O’Hearn, Anthony Santander, Colton Cowser or Cedric Mullins. Three members of that group (Mountcastle, Santander and Mullins) are proven big leaguers. Three of them (Mountcastle, O’Hearn and Cowser) entered Monday with an OPS over .800. And all of them except O’Hearn are better defenders at their positions than Kjerstad is in the corner outfield.

Elias said the decision to send down Kjerstad, who posted a 1.176 OPS in Triple-A before he was recalled, was to prevent an extended period of inactivity from harming his development.

“We were just concerned about him not getting regular at-bats,” Elias said. “We have a really tough lineup to crack here right now, which is good. With people healthy and performing, that’s the case, but then there are a lot of players in Triple-A that are really knocking on the door and kind of putting themselves in position to get called up and wanting to reward that.”

As Elias looks at the past three weeks with Kjerstad on the roster, he doesn’t see any opportunities the club missed to get him more playing time. The Orioles did, after all, go 11-6 in those 17 games. Kjerstad went 2-for-14 with two walks and six strikeouts this year after posting a .748 OPS following his September call-up last year.

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“We’re at a spot right now — knock on wood — where we’ve got a lot of really good players up and running. It’s already a challenge for [manager] Brandon [Hyde] to keep everyone’s name in the lineup on a basis that’s even semi-regular,” Elias said. “With that role being a bench role right now, it’s how long do you want Heston Kjerstad doing that as opposed to getting regular at-bats in Triple-A? … I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of him. I definitely don’t want that to be the case.”

It might seem like this conundrum will never end for the Orioles. The same thing could happen to Stowers now, or Kjerstad when he’s recalled, or to Mayo and Norby when they’re promoted. But it’s more likely that Baltimore isn’t as fortunate in the injury department moving forward as it’s been the past few years or the club moves on from veteran outfielders Santander, Mullins and Austin Hays in 2025 or 2026 to make room for the youngsters.

“This is a problem that’s not going to last forever,” Elias said. “And it’s a lot better than the alternative problem. We’re just kind of doing the best we can in real time. It’s tough on the players that are going up and down, we know that. … We’re doing our best to balance all these factors.”

One difference between Kjerstad and the prospects who came before him might be his defense. Before Kjerstad, Elias had promoted six top 100 prospects he also drafted. All of them — Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Joey Ortiz, Colton Cowser, Jordan Westburg and Jackson Holliday — are either above-average or elite defensive players.

With a lack of public defensive metrics in the minors, it’s difficult to assess Kjerstad’s performance in the field. He was considered a bat-first prospect when he was drafted No. 2 overall by the Orioles in 2020, and Baseball America grades his speed and fielding tools as his two worst.

Elias spoke glowingly of Kjerstad’s defense, but his manager’s actions might speak more loudly. Last year, Kjerstad was entrusted with just 21 2/3 innings in the field across the 17 games for which he was on the roster. This year, he played only 32 innings, including a start in Camden Yards’ abnormally large left field Saturday during which he made a sliding grab but failed to make a difficult one on the warning track.

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“I’m someone that’s a high guy on Heston’s defense, and I have been since the draft,” Elias said. “He’s a really good straightaway runner, he’s got an above-average throwing arm, he’s got a lot of outfield experience and I think he showed yesterday that he’s got speed to cover a big outfield.”

Of course, Elias has no choice other than to speak positively about a prospect’s defense. He would want other front offices to think Kjerstad is a quality defender, too, in case one comes calling for the 25-year-old slugger in return for a pitcher who could help the Orioles win now.

Through that lens, Elias also must juggle the value of his best assets — his blue-chip prospects — and ensure they don’t depreciate alongside the goal of developing those players and defending the club’s AL East title. Elias recently traded away two former top 100 prospects in DL Hall and Ortiz for ace Corbin Burnes. Both of them made multiple stops in Baltimore in reduced roles — Hall a reliever, Ortiz a bench infielder — and it did not appear to hamper their stocks.

“I think [Ortiz] is a clear example of somebody where it doesn’t seem like there was any damage to him not getting an extended stretch of opportunity here at the major league level,” Elias said. “We try to keep an eye on what’s best for us in the moment but also what’s best for the player, because it benefits them and it also benefits us to develop them as optimally as possible.

“We’re trying to strike a delicate balance with all these things.”