As a minor league player, the goal is to improve, move up and eventually have your name called to the big leagues. From there, you want to be the best at your craft, help your team win and partake in All-Star festivities.
Some players get the opportunity to experience the All-Star festivities before they make the bigs via the MLB Futures Games, an exhibition where the best of the best minor league prospects represent their respective organizations.
The crowd roaring fills the stadium as these young men have embarked on a journey that very few will. For Holliday, this isn’t surprising, even as one of the youngest prospects involved.
For Jackson Holliday and Heston Kjerstad, they would get to live this experience and know what it’s like to step on a big league field under the lights of a professional field at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
“That was my goal,” Holliday said. “Obviously I expect myself to do well.”
The maturity Holliday possesses goes beyond what his age tells. He grew up in big league ballparks, as his father, Matt Holliday, was a seven-time All-Star.
For Kjerstad, it’s all new, but having a friend and teammate like Holliday makes for exciting times.
“I know everybody says he looks young, but you hang out with him, man, he’s a really mature guy in the clubhouse,” said Kjerstad. “If you didn’t know how old he was, didn’t base it off how he looks, you would think he was much older. He acts like he’s been around a while.”
Kjerstad started in right field for the American League squad, managed by former Orioles infielder Harold Reynolds. He would go 1-for-2, collecting one of the five total hits the AL would collect. As for Holliday, he would go 0-for-1 in his brief stint in the game.
At the end of the day, this was a learning experience for these young prospects.
“I never thought I would lean on someone younger like that. But he’s a guy, after being around him, I’ll ask him hitting stuff now and then,” Kjerstad added about his teammate and organization mate Holliday. “Even though he’s so young, he knows the game so well.”
For the Orioles, they know they have two future stars in the making. For Kjerstad, his journey seems to be coming full circle. As for Holliday, it’s nothing he didn’t expect.
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