{"id":583273,"date":"2026-02-20T18:00:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T18:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/583273\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T18:00:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T18:00:33","slug":"orioles-news-jordan-westburg-getting-elbow-checked-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/583273\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles news: Jordan Westburg getting elbow checked out"},"content":{"rendered":"

As of yet, nothing has been reported by the Orioles regarding this injury. Reporters including Kostka and MASN\u2019s Roch Kubatko tried to pin down<\/a> manager Craig Albernaz about what was going on with Westburg, whether there were additional concerns for him than just the previously-reported oblique. \u201cHe\u2019s physically unable to participate right now,\u201d was the manager\u2019s cagey response, dodging away from directly responding about the elbow.<\/p>\n

More concerning for me is this one from the manager, relayed from Kubatko\u2019s article:<\/p>\n

Asked about possible concerns within the organization that Westburg is hurt worse than assumed, Albernaz said, \u201cOh, just want to make sure we\u2019re doing our due diligence and make sure Jordan is in the best chance to play this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve added the bold for emphasis because for me that\u2019s the classic tell about when an injury is worse than anyone with the team has openly said. Until 24 hours ago, there was no indication that there might be any reason why Westburg would not play this year. Even if you were glum about the oblique, that\u2019s not a miss all season injury. Albernaz wouldn\u2019t have referred to it that way.<\/p>\n

With Kostka\u2019s report following shortly after that scrum, it\u2019s not looking good. Secret elbow imaging with delays for \u201cdue diligence\u201d pretty much only end up one way, even if it is much less common for an infielder to require surgery on the elbow. For now, there\u2019s no precise news.<\/p>\n

Exhibition games haven\u2019t even begun yet for the Orioles and we already know they\u2019re going to have to resort to backup plans at multiple positions in the infield. Westburg\u2019s situation added to Jackson Holliday\u2019s broken hamate bone means that second base and third base will have different players on Opening Day than we all would have assumed two weeks ago.<\/p>\n

If Westburg is missing a substantial amount of time, the question of whether Coby Mayo can semi-competently handle third base at the major league level is something the Orioles are going to need to figure out over the course of the Grapefruit League schedule. If Mayo is able to do this, and also if he is able to hit like he showed last September, then Westburg\u2019s absence will be far less bruising. If Mayo is not the answer, the team will need to scramble for Plan C.<\/p>\n

Recently-acquired infielder Blaze Alexander seems like the candidate to get several weeks worth of starts at second base until Holliday returns to action. That\u2019s not why the Orioles acquired him, since Holliday\u2019s injury hadn\u2019t even happened yet when the Orioles made the trade. The way things have played out, it seems like that\u2019s the use he should get.<\/p>\n

Nobody else get hurt for the rest of camp. Thanks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As of yet, nothing has been reported by the Orioles regarding this injury. Reporters including Kostka and MASN\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[29307,7936,5],"class_list":{"0":"post-583273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baltimore-orioles-injuries","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles-news","10":"tag-baseball"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116104267521716583","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}