The latest setback for Jordan Westburg is a further strain on the Orioles infielder’s mentally, let alone for his body. Westburg can’t seem to catch a break.
In the Orioles clubhouse at Ed Smith Stadium on Sunday, Westburg told reporters that he felt, understandably, frustration over the partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection Friday in an attempt to avoid elbow surgery. If all goes well, Westburg will still be out until the end of April, at least.
Until then, however, Westburg is in wait-and-see mode.
“Time, rest, is my understanding,” Westburg told reporters, including MLB.com. “Just kind of see how the injection is progressing.”
Westburg will have a better idea if the PRP injection was a success once he begins baseball activities. President of baseball operations Mike Elias said the imaging done on Westburg’s elbow showed the partial tear of the elbow ligament had been there for some time but had “flared up.”
Westburg said the elbow pain he felt for years “got to a point where it wasn’t sustainable,” according to The Baltimore Sun.
Westburg is a key piece of the Orioles’ lineup when healthy, but that qualifier has been an issue in recent years. For as sturdy as Westburg was throughout the minors, his major league experience has been stop-and-start. He dealt with a broken hand in 2024, and he hit the injured list twice last year with a hamstring strain and ankle sprain.
Smaller nagging injuries have bedeviled Westburg the last two years, too, such as a sore back in spring training due to a soft mattress at his Airbnb last year. Westburg entered spring training with an oblique injury this year, although that is not expected to be a long-term issue.
When asked about his confidence level he can return as an everyday, durable player, Westburg was honest.
“I’d like to sit here and say, ‘extremely confident,’ but some of this wears on you mentally,” Westburg said. “So, there are doubts, but like I said, I’m going to do my best to kind of see what avenues that I can go down to maybe help bulletproof my body a little bit more. I don’t know if there’s a way to do that, but I’m going to try.
“That’s another frustrating part of this is I do feel like I was able to stay healthy and play through a lot of things, and to an extent, I did the past couple years, still playing through things that weren’t disclosed and weren’t announced, but some of these major ones, you just can’t play through. So, yeah, I’d like to say that I’m extremely confident. But only time will tell.”
Without Westburg, the Orioles are poised to rely more heavily on Coby Mayo at third base. Jeremiah Jackson and Blaze Alexander are firmly in the mix to receive infield playing time, especially with Jackson Holliday missing opening day due to surgery to remove a broken hamate bone from his right hand.