Kjerstad: "It's been a journey to get to this moment"

Heston Kjerstad’s positive attitude is reflected in the way he’s handled the extreme delay in reaching his first professional game. How he used the term “a little bump” today to describe the reasons why it took until now to join an Orioles minor league affiliate.

With at-bats that finally count.

In front of crowds who don't just pass through the gates for free on a sunny day in Sarasota to watch practices.

A diagnosis of myocarditis shortly after the 2020 draft, where the Orioles picked Kjerstad second overall, prevented him from participating in the fall instructional camp. It kept him out of spring training after a setback. And when he finally was cleared this year to participate in a minicamp and in intrasquad competition two months later, he strained his left hamstring chasing a line drive in the outfield.

The weeks of rehabbing led to light workouts and hitting off tees and coach’s tosses, to facing live pitching, to building at-bats in extended spring training, to reporting to Single-A Delmarva this week.

Kjerstad is batting third tonight as the designated hitter at Perdue Stadium. It’s happening for him. He cleared the little bump.

“It means a lot,” he said in a video call with media. “It’s been a journey to get to this moment, just the last couple years, and also the years in my life growing up and playing high school and college baseball.

“Just been a lot of patience. It’s definitely some different feelings, some different emotions, but most importantly just excited to be out here playing baseball again.”

The Orioles put Kjerstad on a strict progression that removes him early from games when he’s starting in the corner outfield, per hamstring rehab protocols. He might go a full nine innings as the DH.

“The main thing for me is just trying not to force it,” he said. “I haven’t played a real game in a while and it’s going to be human nature. I’m going to want to hit the ball hard, I’m going to want to get hits, I’m going to want to hit home runs, but it’s going to be just kind of sitting back, staying confident in my process and approach, and just enjoying the process and enjoying being back in the box.”

Being patient is the only way it works, and Kjerstad has lots of practice. He could teach classes.

“Definitely there’s some conversations you have with some friends or family along the way, or mentor, and it helps bring light to it,” he said, “but at the end of the day you’ve still got to have those little inner talks with yourself, to just stay patient and stay confident and let time do its work. And know at the end of the day there’s a plan for me, and on the journey there’s things I’m supposed to learn that are going to set me up for what I’m supposed to encounter in my future.”

The present finds Kjerstad behind good friend Spencer Torkelson, chosen by the Tigers with the first overall selection in 2020. Torkelson has appeared in 51 games this season as a rookie. And other prospects in other organizations remained active while he sat.

“I understand the scenario and the circumstances of where I was drafted or where the other guys are that were drafted in the same class as me or drafted around me,” he said. “We all have different journeys, we’re all working for the same goal, and our timelines will be a little different, for sure. You’ve just got to be patient and just keep my head down and stay on my timeline and progress as fast as I can, and just become the best player that I can be.”

And find better luck than what he encountered in Sarasota. Trying to run down Adley Rutschman’s liner to left, hitting the ground and feeling the pain radiate through his leg.

The baseball gods have a sense of humor, but there was nothing funny about it. The injury was an incredibly cruel blow after what Kjerstad went through with his heart condition.

“It was unfortunate and frustrating because I was pumped to be at spring training and obviously counting down the days until we broke from camp, and I was feeling great, swinging it good, back in shape and everything, ready to get after it. And then just pulled my hamstring in the outfield,” he said.

“It was frustrating. It’s not fun to go through injuries and you never plan for them in your journey, you never think about them, but you’ve got to persevere through them because it’s part of the game. It’s not the most fun part, but I think people learn some things being away from the game and having to see the game from that side.

“I’ve learned a lot, going through the struggles I had to go through the past little while. The main thing is just how, even when times are rough, there’s always going to be light at the end of the tunnel, and you’ve just got to take it day by day, and you’ve got to control what you can control. At the end of the day there’s a lot of things you can’t control that you’ll just spin your wheels thinking about them or trying to control them.

“It’s just made me a little bit more confident and a little bit more comfortable when I will have hardships in the future.”

The periods when Kjerstad was shut down and removed from a sport and the people that he loved allowed him to reflect on exactly what he was missing.

How much he needed it.

“What I learned most is how much I want to play the game of baseball, and being away from it’s not where I want to be,” he said. “I want to be at the field every day, I want to be playing, and it really put a perspective on how much I love the game and how I want to play it as long as I can. And now putting in the work or whatever I’ve got to do, that is fun, because that’s all I want to do.

“I can’t think of anything else at the time that was appealing or put a smile on my face or helped me pass the time, but now, being back here at the baseball field and in the clubhouse, around the guys, just a lot of fun. It’s what I want to do.”

After what life has dealt Kjerstad since the draft, he isn’t looking too far down the road or setting his expectations at unreasonable heights. He’s in the Shorebirds lineup tonight. He’ll be in the outfield on Saturday. And he’ll just let the process play out, with the usual smile on his face. Taking nothing for granted.

“This year, I’m just trying to take it day by day and see where I’m at and figure out what parts of my game that I need to work on and improve at,” he said. “It’s probably all of them. I can always improve my hitting, defense, everything. But most importantly for the beginning, my first few games here, it’s just getting my feet wet, getting comfortable again and just swinging the bat again and figuring out my approach. Just taking it day by day and becoming the best player I can become this season.”

Reaching his potential, what the Orioles saw in him leading up to the draft, eventually puts Kjerstad at Camden Yards again for the first time since signing his contract. He can reunite with Torkelson when the Tigers are in town or he travels to Detroit.

“Hopefully, get to be playing against him soon,” Kjerstad said. “He understands what I’ve been through.”

Until that glorious time, Kjerstad will slip on his Delmarva jersey with the No. 9 on it and get back to doing what was denied him for way too long.

“For me,” he said, “as long as there’s a baseball field, a place to play, that’s all I’m worried about at this point.”