Heston Sawyer Kjerstad (born February 12, 1999) is an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

and

first baseman A first baseman, abbreviated 1B, is the player on a baseball or softball team who fields the area nearest first base, the first of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. The first baseman is responsible for the majori ...

in the

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

organization. Kjerstad was selected second overall by the Orioles in the

2020 Major League Baseball draft The 2020 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on June 10 and 11, 2020. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2019 MLB season ...

Amateur career

Kjerstad grew up in

Amarillo, Texas Amarillo ( ; Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Potter County. It is the 14th-most populous city in Texas and the largest city in the Texas Panhandle. A portion of the city extends into Randall County ...

and attended

Randall High School Randall High School is a public high school located in the city limits of Amarillo, Texas ( US). It is part of the Canyon Independent School District located in north central Randall County and classified as a 5A school by the UIL. In 2015, the ...

. As a junior, he batted .477 with 32 RBIs and was named the District 3-5A Most Valuable Player and first team All-State. Kjerstad was named first team All-State and District 3-5A Most Valuable Player again as a senior. He was drafted in the 36th round of the

2017 Major League Baseball Draft The 2017 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft began on June 12, 2017. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The first 36 picks, including the first round and compensatory picks, were broadcast on MLB Network on J ...

by the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...

, but opted to play college baseball at Arkansas instead. Kjerstad was a starting outfielder for the Razorbacks as a true freshman. He batted .332 with 30 extra base hits, 14 home runs, 58 RBIs and was named the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) Freshman of the Year, second team All-SEC and a freshman All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and the '' Collegiate Baseball Newspaper''. He helped the team to the

2018 College World Series Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short s ...

final and was named to the All-Tournament team. As a sophomore, Kjerstad was again named second team All-SEC after batting .327 with 17 home runs and 51 RBI's. During the summer, he played for the Team USA Collegiate National Baseball Team and batted .395 in 14 games. Kjerstad entered his junior season as a preseason first team All-American selection by Perfect Game and by '' Collegiate Baseball Newspaper'' and as a top prospect for the

2020 Major League Baseball Draft The 2020 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft took place on June 10 and 11, 2020. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was set based on the reverse order of the 2019 MLB season ...

. He was named the SEC Player of the Week as well as the National Player of the Week by ''Collegiate Baseball'' for the first week of the season after going 7 for 13 with four home runs, 10 RBIs and six runs scored in the Razorbacks opening series against

Eastern Illinois Eastern Illinois University is a public university in Charleston, Illinois. Established in 1895 as the Eastern Illinois State Normal School, a teacher's college offering a two-year degree, Eastern Illinois University gradually expanded into a co ...

. Kjerstad batted .448 with six home runs, 20 RBI's and 19 runs scored in 16 games before the season was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Professional career

Kjerstad was selected by the

with the second overall pick in the

. Kjerstad signed with the Orioles on June 30, 2020 for a $5.2 million bonus. Kjerstad developed

myocarditis Myocarditis, also known as inflammatory cardiomyopathy, is an acquired cardiomyopathy due to inflammation of the heart muscle. Symptoms can include shortness of breath, chest pain, decreased ability to exercise, and an irregular heartbeat. The ...

after signing and missed spring training and all of the 2021 season. After beginning the 2022 season in extended spring training, Kjerstad made his professional debut on June 10, 2022, for the Class-A Delmarva Shorebirds. In early July, he was promoted to the High-A Aberdeen IronBirds after batting .463 with 37 hits and 17 RBIs in 22 games with Delmarva. Kjerstad batted .233 average in 43 games playing for the IronBirds. Kjerstad played in the 2022 Arizona Fall League, where he batted .371/.400/.663, and led the league in at bats (89) and doubles (9), as he was second in strikeouts (27). He was named to the Orioles' 2023 spring training roster as a non-roster invitee and batted .381 with four home runs in 23 games before being reassigned to minor league camp. Kjerstad began the 2023 season with the Double-A

Bowie Baysox The Bowie Baysox are a Minor League Baseball team located in Bowie, Maryland. They are the Double-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, and play in the Eastern League. Their home ballpark is Prince George's Stadium. History From 1989 to 1992, ...

and started playing first base in addition to outfield. He hit .310 (57-for-184)/.383/.576/.959 and was among the Eastern League top five in batting average,

slugging percentage In baseball statistics, slugging percentage (SLG) is a measure of the batting productivity of a hitter. It is calculated as total bases divided by at bats, through the following formula, where ''AB'' is the number of at bats for a given player, ...

, on-base plus slugging (OPS), Triple (baseball), triples, home runs, extra-base hits and hits with the Baysox before his promotion to the Norfolk Tides on June 5. His first Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A homer was a leadoff Inside-the-park home run, inside-the-parker in the seventh inning of an 8–4 away win over the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders four days later on June 9. Kjerstad was selected to play in the 2023 All-Star Futures Game.

References

External links

Arkansas Razorbacks bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kjerstad, Heston 1999 births Living people Arkansas Razorbacks baseball players Baseball outfielders Baseball players from Texas Sportspeople from Amarillo, Texas United States national baseball team players Delmarva Shorebirds players Aberdeen IronBirds players Bowie Baysox players