Elias calls Kjerstad "the best left-handed hitter in the country"

The Orioles knew fairly early in the draft process that they were taking a position player. Executive vice president Mike Elias especially liked one pitcher, but not with the second overall pick. Not with so many intriguing hitters.

Elias didn't meet in person with Arkansas outfielder Heston Kjerstad, who in the executive's words was more of a dark horse candidate to join the organization. Their Zoom call proved to be an important step in solidifying the decision.

The player that they liked in high school really grew on them as a collegiate outfielder. The power, the makeup. A vision that he could be feared presence in the middle of the order for many years.

With the mocks tying the Orioles to Vanderbilt's Austin Martin, Elias grabbed Kjerstad and shook up the draft board.

The Orioles later chose Mississippi State shortstop Jordan Westburg with the 30th selection after the pitchers that Elias liked already were gone.

"This (Kjerstad) is a middle-of-the-order bat profile for us and we feel that he's the best left-handed hitter in the country this year, and this is somebody who's going to hit for power and average and hit in the middle of our order for a long time while playing a quality right field defense," Elias said in a Zoom call with the media.

"Heston was a guy who was on the radar screen in high school out of a small high school in Amarillo, Texas, ended up going to Arkansas, was dominant from the minute he stepped foot on campus. Kind of had a growth spurt. The power came and had two All-American caliber seasons his first two years. Went to Team USA, raked for Team USA, almost hit .400 with three homers and started off this year like absolute gangbusters until the shutdown. We think it would have been an historic season had it kept going.

"So really, for us, it was about the Tigers picked first and who is the best player left and who's our favorite bat, and it was him. This is a guy that I think had made some adjustments where had the season continued we would have seen some improvements from him in his strikeouts and walks, which was an area of improvement for him coming off last year, and the production was ridiculous.

"I think the thing we like about him the most other than the bat and his makeup and who he is and where he comes from is the fact that his power is really foul pole to foul pole, all fields, all types of pitches. He's a monster and we're really excited to develop him in our system and hopefully get him in the middle of our lineup one day."

The Orioles appeared to use the under-slot strategy on Kjerstad, as some scouts and draft analysts had predicted.

"Well, we haven't signed him yet, so it's hard to say that it's factored in at all," Elias said. "Listen, when you're picking that high, you don't want to feel like you're not taking the guy that you want, that is the right guy for you in your draft. We could have gone in a few directions. We like all those players up there. That's how it is when you're picking high. You're comparing good options and you saw the teams behind us went in directions that they weren't necessarily projected to go in either. That's just how it happens.

"We had a top of the first round other than the (Spencer) Torkelson pick that did not go by the script and that's why we do our jobs and do what we do in this business and we hope it works out. You really couldn't have gone wrong with a couple of those directions up there, so it was really an excruciating decision. I've been part of a lot of tough decisions and this is right up there."

The Zoom call pushed Kjerstad up the team's draft board.

"He was not amongst the handful of players that I met in person over the winter," Elias said. "He was kind of a dark horse for us. We talked about him over the wintertime, saying, 'Hey, this guy could enter it.' And I just figured that we would wait and see kind of how the spring went before arranging that meeting. Not just to see how he did, but also part of it is if I go meet with a guy like that who's at the wintertime ranked in the middle part of the first round, can make some waves, so that's part of the gamesmanship of the scouting process. But we were keeping an eye on him with this pick."

Elias remembers Kjerstad hitting a home run to center field during a college tournament at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

The power is undeniable.

"In a place where I rarely saw homers go when I was working there," Elias said. "It's a really special bat in our opinion. He took some steps forward this year. ... I think if we hadn't taken him, he was going to go pretty quick after us. I'm just glad it worked out. It was an interesting spring, not having a full spring, but he had laid down such a track record at that point, even without the spring, that he didn't need it."

Here's more from Elias:

On whether going under-slot will enable the Orioles to pay more for players in the later rounds: "I think we are in a position where we may be able to be a little more lenient with signability relative to the rest of the picks and their slots. But the tough thing this year is there aren't that many draft picks remaining, so we're going to have to take the best player on our board in the third round and the fourth round and the fifth round and not force anything. In the second round, too. So we'll see.

"We're not going to be limited, I don't think. We're going to be able to take the best talent on our board for every bit of the rest of the draft."

On when the decision was made on Kjerstad and how the final five was whittled down: "We really don't decide 100 percent for sure and start blasting off with the strategy for one of these really high picks until the last hour of the draft. That's just kind of the way it is, at least it has been in my experience.

"You can really wake up each morning and feel a different way because these choices are tough and there's not a ton of separation between these guys sometimes. And so we had an idea probably earlier without making it public that we were focusing on one of the bats in this draft. We really, really liked one of the pitchers in particular, but we just felt the bats that were available, we didn't want to pass up. And then it became a big debate and a big analysis about which one was the best way to go and that lasted all the way through today."

On Westburg: "Another Team USA guy. A high performing but also toolsy college shortstop from Mississippi State. You look at the history of the draft and middle infielders, especially shortstops from the SEC conference, from the big conference schools, every round they're the smartest picks you can make when you get a chance and you should really grab as many as you can. And we really like Westburg. Another guy who was on the radar screen for the scouting community in high school because of the tools he had. Really good college career, really good Cape and he's a guy who's got power. He's got above-average speed, he can throw. So there's a lot to like and we think he can stay at shortstop. We think he's someone who could have gone a couple picks earlier in the first round had things shaken out a different way.

"Great to get two dominant college players with our first two picks."