For the last year and a half, we as Orioles fans have continued to draw between the Orioles’ struggles and the decline in the play and health of Adley Rutschman. After all, as Adley’s gone, so have the O’s since his arrival in 2022. However, if the 2025 season is anything to go on, we need to start having those same conversations about Jordan Westburg.
The unassuming former All-Star infielder came into the 2025 season looking to rid himself of the sour taste from the end of his 2024 campaign. After
a first half last season that earned him an All-Star nod (as an injury replacement) and had him pacing for a 25 HR, 85 RBI, .800+ OPS sophomore season, Westburg’s season was cut short when he was hit by a pitch and fractured his hand at the beginning of last August. He didn’t make it back off the IL until the last week of the 2024 regular season, and never had an opportunity to get back in the swing of things before the Orioles crashed out of last season’s playoffs.
With that injury-marred second half serving as his backdrop, Westburg entered 2025 looking to re-cement his place at the heart of this young, (hopefully) ascending Orioles lineup. Instead, what mostly followed was a series of unfortunate injuries that prevented Westy from really making his mark on the cursed 2025 Orioles season.
Over the first month of the 2025 season, Westburg struggled to a triple slash line of .217/.265/.391 before landing on the IL for the first time with a hamstring strain. The hamstring injury would keep Westburg out of action for a month, and after a string of eight rehab games at Norfolk, Westy finally returned to Baltimore on June 10th.
From the day he came off the IL up until the All-Star break, the Orioles’ do-it-all infielder was back to his best self. In that 21-game stretch, he slashed .293/.354/.573, hit six home runs, put up 15 RBIs and helped the Orioles go 12-9 in the games he played (17-13 overall) to close out the season’s first half.
Despite being off the IL, Westburg still couldn’t stay completely healthy throughout June and July. In a loss to the Yankees on June 21st, he left the game in 3rd inning after badly jamming his index finger on a headfirst slide into second base. That injury would keep him out of the lineup for three days, and then for another week after he reinjured the finger on June 27th.
The nagging injuries didn’t slow Westburg down at the plate, though. From July 18th to August 18th, Westburg slashed .310/.355/.474, launched another five home runs, picked up 13 RBIs and scored 24 runs. The 26-year-old continued to show that, when he was healthy, he can be the type of player who can help the Orioles’ offense hum.
The only problem with Westburg’s 2025 season was that “when he was healthy” wasn’t the case often enough. Injuries reared their ugly head again on August 18th, when Westburg sprained his ankle in the 1st inning of an Orioles win in Boston.
That ankle sprain kept him out of action for four weeks, and when he returned, the injuries seemed to finally have taken their toll on his on-field performance. In his last 12 games of the season, he only managed to hit .200 with an OPS of .585 as he and the Orioles limped to the 2025 finish line. He did manage to hit two home runs in the final series of the season of the Yankees, with his three-run homer off Will Warren his biggest Win Probability Added play of the season.
Despite being limited to 85 games, Westburg still managed to tie for the team lead with 17 home runs. His 150 total bases were third on the team behind Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday, while he also finished third in runs scored with 59 and fourth in hits with 87. Had he played a full 162 games, Westburg was on pace to hit 32 HR, put up 78 RBIs, score 112 runs and collect 166 hits.
Even after a disappointing season that was too often derailed by injuries, Westburg’s spot in the Orioles lineup is not in question heading into the 2026 season. Once he’s back and fully healthy, Westy will be back in the top half of the lineup and a key component in resurrecting an underachieving Orioles lineup.
The only question facing Westburg as he looks to put 2025 behind him is whether these injuries were “freak injuries”—as interim manager Tony Mansolino described them—or the start of a worrying trend. Westy missing 100+ games over the last two seasons with a combination of hand, leg and ankle injuries could all just be a string of bad luck, as Mansolino suggested. Or, they could be the first steps to him earning an “injury-prone” designation.
The best way for Westburg to put those injuries behind him is to come back and put up a healthy 2026 season. Stay healthy, and he’s likely in for a career year.
