Over the last few weeks, we have been surveying readers on their expectations for the major players on this year’s Orioles roster. Today we reach our final, and perhaps most difficult to judge player. Jordan Westburg has been an exciting player since his debut in 2023, but has faced multiple injuries in his short major league career. This year, he faces what could be his biggest injury yet.
When spring training began, the team announced that Westburg had an oblique injury that would keep him from
starting baseball activities right away. Before anyone could get too concerned about the oblique, even worse news emerged: Westburg has a partial tear in his UCL. He is attempting to rehab the injury through rest and with a platelet-rich plasma injection.
Will it work? We have to wait to find out. We already know that Westburg will be out for at least all of April. After that the team will hopefully have a better plan moving forward. The worst-case scenario is Tommy John surgery, which will keep him out for the entire season. And if he waits too long to get the surgery, it could eat into next season as well. We’re all hoping the rest and rehab works, to say the least.
It’s hard to predict what will happen with Westburg this season. Will he play? If he does play, how good will he be? Here are some projections:
- ZiPS: 112 G, 466 PA, .260/.315/.472, 21 HR
- Baseball Reference: 421 PA, .264/.317/.455, 16 HR
These two projections are similar and account for Westburg not playing a full season in either 2024 or 2025. Despite his talent, Westburg has yet to put up an OBP higher than .313 in any of his three major league seasons. He has shown he has good power and could hit well over 20 home runs if he ever played a full season.
The biggest question is not how often Westburg will get on base or how many home runs he’ll hit. The biggest question is how many games he will play.
What do you think? Will Westburg play at all this year? And if so, when will he return and how many games will he play? And what do you expect from him offensively when he is on the field?
