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How ‘dark horse’ Heston Kjerstad climbed the Orioles draft board to be their choice at No. 2 overall in the MLB draft

Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias traveled the country this winter for in-person visits with potential candidates for the second overall draft pick to get a feel for them as a person.

“I just figured that we’d 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 in the wintertime that’s ranked in the middle part of the first round, it can make some waves, so that’s part of the gamesmanship of the scouting process,” Elias said.