Heston Kjerstad heats up with back-to-back homers for Norfolk
Kjerstad homered on July 2 and July 3, lifting his last seven games to a .973 OPS and pushing his Norfolk total to five. Baltimore's outfield picture still has room for his bat.
Heston Kjerstad homered in consecutive games for Norfolk, and each swing sharpened the same question Baltimore has carried since spring: is the left-handed hitter forcing his way back into the Orioles’ plans? The 27-year-old has a .973 OPS over his last seven games, a stretch that has pushed him to a .287 average and .750 OPS this season at Triple-A.
Kjerstad’s latest surge came on July 2 and July 3, when he went deep in back-to-back games for the Norfolk Tides. Those blasts were his fourth and fifth homers of the 2026 season, and they added another burst of power to a lineup that has already leaned on him for run production during his return to health.
Baltimore sent Kjerstad back to Triple-A on May 28 after activating him from the 60-day injured list, a move that followed a right hamstring strain that first hit in March. He had begun a rehab assignment with the Chesapeake Baysox on May 9 before moving back to Norfolk, and the organization has used this summer stretch to see whether his timing and power would return quickly enough to matter for the major-league roster.
The track record says the bat can move fast. Baltimore drafted Kjerstad No. 2 overall in 2020 out of Arkansas, and he made his major-league debut on Sept. 14, 2023. He has also shown he can punish Triple-A pitching before, including when he reached his 11th Norfolk homer in 2024 after returning to the Tides. That history gives this latest run more weight than a routine hot streak, especially after MLB.com reported in spring training that he was fully healthy and in the mix for an Orioles outfield job.
Kjerstad’s recent form keeps that conversation alive. With Baltimore still sorting through its outfield depth and Kjerstad already having tasted the majors, every extra-base hit in Norfolk carries more consequence than the box score alone suggests.
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