Captain Consistent: Orioles infield prospect Jordan Westburg’s ‘morbid’ mentality pushing him toward majors

Jordan Westburg recognizes it’s not a great analogy. After all, it implies he’s dead.

Baseball is a game of highs and lows, hots and colds, peaks and valleys. That up-and-down nature, the Orioles’ infield prospect said, prompts thoughts of a heart rate monitor.

“It’s a little morbid,” Westburg said, “but I want to be that flatline as much as I can.

“If you can ride that flatline, that consistency, man, I feel like that’s when your potential is maximized.”

To those who have witnessed the 24-year-old’s climb up Baltimore’s minor league system, he frequents that space often. They call him a “gamer” and a “grinder.” He’s “dependable,” “scrappy” and “professional.” But no word better defines Jordan Westburg than consistent.

“The ‘C word’ in baseball is the most important word,” fellow infield prospect Connor Norby said. “That’s what we all strive to do, be as consistent as possible. And that’s him.”

In an organization stocked with young talent, Westburg was the Orioles’ minor league player of the year in 2022, hitting 27 home runs, driving in 106 runs and posting an .852 OPS between Double-A and Triple-A while balancing duties at second base, shortstop and third base. That success has carried into this spring, with Westburg hitting .308 with an .877 OPS. Of the 24 balls he’s put in play tracked by Statcast, nine have been at least 101 mph, a rate 17.5% above league average entering Tuesday.

At the start of camp, Baltimore’s roster included six infielders who appeared on at least one preseason list of the game’s top 100 prospects, and Westburg is the only one beyond top overall prospect Gunnar Henderson still jockeying for an opening day roster spot. His ability to earn one will be difficult, with Henderson part of an established rotation that also includes Adam Frazier, Jorge Mateo and Ramón Urías, but Westburg’s continued presence shows the majors are within reach.

“The more he exposes himself to the major league coaching staff, the more they’re gonna like him,” Triple-A Norfolk manager Buck Britton said, “He’s that throwback baseball player, a guy you can really trust nightly to show up and give you the best effort that he’s got.”

Teammates have noticed the same. Left-hander Drew Rom said some of Double-A Bowie’s pitchers last season referred to Westburg as “The Captain,” bringing the nickname over from High-A Aberdeen the year before. Westburg figures he’s carried himself this way since the summer after his sophomore year at Mississippi State. At times, he “let my emotions get the best of me,” but he learned to play with “controlled aggressiveness” in the wood-bat Cape Cod Baseball League.

After his junior year season was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, the Orioles drafted Westburg 30th overall in 2020, and he brought that approach into his professional career. He said it’s one he modeled after his dad’s favorite player, longtime Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley.

“Very emotionless guy on the field, almost seemed like he was asleep in the box, and then wham, quick hands, hit the ball hard,” Westburg said. “I just put some pieces together, and I figured, ‘All right, maybe this is what I’m missing.’”

Westburg’s a big fan of Hall of Fame outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., but knows “all of that big personality, that’s not me.” Growing up in New Braunfels, Texas, he had a poster of Texas Rangers infielder Michael Young, whom he referred to as “Mr. Dependable.” He’s also studied current Rangers shortstop Corey Seager; although Westburg is a couple of inches shorter than the 6-foot-4 Seager, he values the example of a bigger shortstop who nonchalantly shines.

“That’s kind of how I want to be viewed, as the guy who isn’t loud on the field, isn’t doing a whole lot of crazy antics,” Westburg said. “I kind of want to be unnoticed in a way.”

But Westburg’s performance makes it hard to look away.

‘A smile to your face’

Westburg and Henderson largely climbed the minors together, with Henderson reaching the majors first last summer. The idea of playing alongside him at Camden Yards “brings a smile to your face,” Westburg said.

That’s saying something. It takes a lot to get Westburg to smile.

“That’s somebody who always brings a straight face to the ballpark,” right-hander Grayson Rodriguez said.

“It’s definitely in a big situation whenever he shows a little bit of emotion,” Henderson said.

“He has that even-keeled, ‘I’m not going to show a lot of emotion’ way of going about it,” left-hander Bruce Zimmermann said. “He plays with a lot of fire. He just masks [his emotions] pretty well.”

“He doesn’t BS around,” Norby said. “When it comes to Westy, it’s very business.”

When Westburg countered — cracking a grin as he said, “I’m not like a robot that everybody makes me out to be” — outfield prospect Colton Cowser laughed incredulously as he packed a bag nearby. Cowser called Westburg “Mr. Routine,” acknowledging he’ll participate in locker room banter as long as it doesn’t take place too close to first pitch.

At times, Westburg “takes it to the extreme,” Norby said, and Britton and Double-A Bowie manager Kyle Moore agreed. But both coaches also said it’s what makes him stand out amid the organization’s talented crop of infielders. Nothing’s more likely to make Westburg smile than winning, Moore said.

“When he locks it in mentally for hours at a time, he’s been pretty unstoppable in the minor leagues,” Moore said. “He elevates people around him. If you’re engaging in a conversation with Westy and you’re another player, it’s never any shenanigans about what happened last night or anything outside of, ‘How can we be the best baseball players we can possibly be?’

“From a maturity standpoint, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen, honestly.”

Moore said Westburg becomes “a different guy” when he begins to relax postgame, though he often sees that in the form of Westburg turning on the Orioles’ game. Britton said he has some inside jokes with Westburg he’ll turn to when he needs Westburg to loosen up, but he’s always cognizant of timing.

“He’s just so intense out there, man,” Britton said. “I don’t wanna say it’s a little much because it’s pure, it’s genuine, but I think there are times where you’ve got to figure out a way to get Westy out of his own head.

“He can be a little bit intimidating because it’s a guy that you’re like, ‘I don’t want to break him out of his focus.’”

Westburg cares greatly about his job, but he wants it almost to look at if he doesn’t. He said he keeps himself on that “flatline” with self-reminders that his performance is not all that matters.

“It’s not about perfection,” Westburg said. “It’s not about results right away. Sometimes, it’s about the process. Sometimes, it’s not even about yourself. Sometimes, it’s about, ‘OK, how can I be a great teammate? How can I be a great person off the field? How can I be a great husband or brother or son?’

“I try to put things in perspective. There’s a lot of things greater than baseball, and you can play for 10, 20 years, likelihood is you still have a lot of life left.”

‘He’s a big leaguer’

Westburg “can roll out of bed and hit,” Zimmermann said, but a lot of preparation separates Westburg’s wake-up time and when he first steps into a batter’s box against an opposing pitcher.

For day games this spring, he has aimed to be at the Orioles’ Ed Smith Stadium complex by 6:30 each morning. He gives himself a few minutes to decompress in the clubhouse, eats breakfast, then heads to the weight room to activate his body before taking any swings. His routine in the batting cage changes somewhat depending on how he feels or who the Orioles are facing that day, but he regardless seeks to do “as much as I possibly can to prep my body for the hardest things that come that day.”

“Anything he feels like he’s not good at,” Henderson said, “he’s gonna attack and make it a non-weakness.”

But weaknesses are hard to find in Westburg’s game. When it comes to baseball’s five tools, he has them all, even if he is regarded as more solid than remarkable in any of them.

“He does everything really well,” Norby said. “You look at him, and he’s a big leaguer in my eyes, and he’s just good at everything across the board.”

It stands out, then, what Westburg considers the area he most needs to grow.

“Every day, I’m coming to the field with a mentality of, ‘I’m going to learn. I’m going to get better. I’m going to strive to be a little bit more consistent,’” he said.

Again playing around the infield this spring, Westburg has tried to gain insights on each position from others in camp. Urías won a Gold Glove at third base last season, and given that Urías also has experience at both middle infield spots, Westburg has asked how he approaches third base differently. He’s studied how Mateo, metrically one of baseball’s best shortstops in 2022, works there, trying to take pieces from his, Henderson’s and 2022 first overall pick Jackson Holliday’s games after watching Joey Ortiz play there regularly last year. Second base is where Westburg feels most comfortable, he said, but he’s still learned from Frazier, second-year utility player Terrin Vavra and Norby, examining their footwork and approach to different feeds.

The Orioles’ depth at each of those positions shows “we’re in a really, really prime spot to jump on some people,” Westburg said, but he’s also aware of what it might mean for the players. In most other organizations, Moore said, “Westy would be the front page of every single media publication of the entire organization.” In Baltimore, there are questions about his place in the future.

“At the end of the day, there’s nine guys in the field,” Westburg said. “I trust that my abilities are good enough to get me to the big leagues. When, I don’t know. I don’t really care. How, don’t care. I’d just love to be there. I’d love to help out in any way.

“I trust that, hopefully, my time is coming, and if it doesn’t, I can live with that, too.”

The glut of infielders has led to speculation that could be an area the Orioles deal from should they be in contention at this summer’s trade deadline; Baltimore already sent one well-regarded minor league infielder, Darell Hernaiz, to the Oakland Athletics to add left-hander Cole Irvin to its rotation this offseason.

Westburg tries not to concern himself with that possibility. His future in the game, he believes, won’t arrive without a focus on the present.

“Anytime I find myself floating that way, I try and quickly shut it down,” Westburg said. “As soon as I start thinking about the future, I feel like I get away from my routines. I get away from the goal of getting just a little bit more consistent every day.”

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