Update on Kjerstad (No Bueno)

[spiritof66]

45 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Or course they didn’t know of the condition when they drafted him.  Why is that even being discussed?

 

The Kjerstad situation is a reminder of the problem inherent in looking at your talent in A ball, or even AA /AAA ball, and assigning their future roles: "This guy has the tools to be our shortstop, that guy's gonna provide a lot offense at second base for four or five years, there's three-fifths of a great starting rotation." Planning is fine, and so are posts projecting the 2023 Orioles lineup and roster. But stuff happens. Normal things like a guy who battered MiL pitching becoming a mediocre ML hitter, and odd things like this.

Successful teams have deep farm systems so they can better deal with these things. Building that depth is a special challenge for the Orioles until they get to a point where their pipeline includes some near-ML-ready home-grown talent from Latin America. It's also why every successful team has to trade for or sign talent from outside the organization. Even if a team has high draft choices for five straight years and drafts in part by position needs, so that it can put a highly touted, first or second round pick at every position on a blackboard, putting them all on the field as productive major leaguers is something else again, let alone putting them all there at around the same time. That's where the hard part of building a winning team comes in. We don't -- or at least I don't -- have any idea how successful Elias will be at that task.

 

[HowAboutThat]

So it seems from reading the comments that Mike had no advance warning that this is going to happen, That we are unclear on whether he will ever play but Mike is at least cautiously optimistic at this time.

My question is whether there is any kind of provision in the draft procedure for a compensation pick for a first rounder who never plays because of health reasons?

[Tony-OH]

I'm going to close this down now since it has devolved into personal attacks and closed in on politics. At the end of the day, the young man has had a relapse and we will continue to hope for his wellness and return to the field at some point.