Jordan Westburg’s 2026 season is done. The Baltimore Orioles confirmed Thursday that their 27-year-old infielder underwent Tommy John surgery on his right elbow and will miss the entire year.
This is a brutal outcome for a player who tried the conservative route first. Westburg was diagnosed with a partial UCL tear back in February and received a platelet-rich plasma injection in hopes of avoiding surgery. It didn’t work. By May, the decision was made to operate, and now he’s looking at a recovery that stretches deep into 2027.
Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias confirmed the news while leaving a small window of optimism: a full return early in the 2027 season is possible if the recovery goes smoothly.
Westburg is one of the more quietly important pieces of this Baltimore roster. The 2024 All-Star hit .264 with 38 home runs over the previous three seasons. He’s the kind of player who doesn’t dominate headlines but absolutely affects games, and the Orioles can’t easily replace what he brings defensively at the hot corner or his power bat in the middle of the order.
Tommy John surgery is no longer the career-ender it once was for position players, but it’s still a year of your career you don’t get back. Westburg turns 28 in July, right in what should be his prime years. Losing this season stings from both a competitive standpoint for Baltimore and a personal development standpoint for him.
The Orioles are in a transitional phase right now, and setbacks like this make the path forward murkier. They’re not contending this year, but they need their young core healthy to build toward whatever comes next. A full year without Westburg is not the answer to that question anyone in Baltimore wanted.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
