Surprising Baltimore Orioles Rookie of the Year Candidate in 2024

After their top prospect Gunnar Henderson took home the Rookie of the Year award for 2023, there is a surprising candidate on which Baltimore Orioles player can do the same next season.

The Baltimore Orioles had a good award season after Brandon Hyde won AL Manager of the Year honors, Gunnar Henderson brought home the AL Rookie of the Year award and Mike Elias won Executive of the Year.

With a loaded pool of prospects seemingly ready to join their MLB roster soon, the Orioles will have plenty more players who will be in the ROY conversation for years to come.

Everyone is anticipating the arrival of the No. 1 overall prospect Jackson Holliday at some point during the 2024 season.

However, that's not who MLB Pipeline is pegging as Baltimore's potential Rookie of the Year. They think outfielder Heston Kjerstad will make a major impact for the Orioles next season.

"The outfield is also crowded, but look for Kjerstad and his left-handed swing to get enough at-bats in both corner spots and DH to compete for the hardware," they wrote.

Baltimore selected the talented prospect second overall in the 2020 draft. He didn't hit the professional baseball field until 2022 due to a myocarditis diagnosis.

Once he was able to play, Kjerstad ascended through the minor league ranks quickly, playing 76 games at Triple-A last season before getting called-up to the Orioles' MLB roster in September.

He made his debut on Sept. 14 and played 13 games, getting 30 at-bats with Baltimore. The MLB's No. 24 overall prospect finished with a slash line of .233/.281/.467 with two home runs and three RBI.

Kjerstad is expected to play a much larger role with the Orioles next year after debuting in 2023. There is also some speculation that they could move on from a couple of their established players this offseason as well.

That should free up playing time for young prospect so he can put together his Rookie of the Year campaign.