Orioles' Jordan Westburg to miss entire 2026 season after elbow surgery

Josh Tolentino and Matt Weyrich, Baltimore Sun on May 15, 2026

Published in Baseball

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WASHINGTON — If the Orioles are going to turn their season around, they’ll have to do it without Jordan Westburg.

The infielder underwent successful Tommy John surgery on Wednesday to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow that he partially tore in February, Orioles president of baseball operations Mike Elias announced Friday. Westburg had a consultation in Los Angeles on Monday with Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed the surgery, and Elias said that Westburg will miss the entire 2026 season, with a return early in 2027 “very much in play.”

“Obviously, that’s a huge blow for the team, and it’s an unexpected one,” Elias said. “It wasn’t something that we were braced for coming into the year. To Jordan’s credit, he wanted to try everything he could to come back and help the team this year, and help the team as an infielder, but it just wasn’t working out with the conservative route. So, we went ahead and got the surgery, and I don’t think much, if anything, was lost in terms of his 2027 timeline, so that’s kind of why we went with that approach.”

Westburg, 27, was the Orioles’ No. 30 overall pick in the 2020 MLB draft who emerged as an All-Star for the middle of their lineup in 2024. He hit .264 with 18 home runs and a .792 OPS that season, bouncing between second and third base before settling in at the latter as his everyday position. Westburg also emerged as a quiet leader in the clubhouse whose intensity and hard-nosed approach to the game rubbed off on teammates.

Injuries then began to strike. He broke his hand on a hit by pitch on July 31 and missed the next two months, returning only for the Orioles’ final six games and abbreviated playoff run. Westburg also played just 85 games last season because of a litany of injuries that included a hamstring strain, sprained ankle and twice-sprained finger.

An oblique injury sidelined him at the start of spring training this year before the elbow — a chronic issue that slowly worsened over the past few seasons — forced Westburg to open 2026 on the injured list. He received a platelet-rich plasma injection and tried to ramp back up, but he suffered a setback and shut his throwing program down earlier this month.

“I’d like to sit here and say, ‘extremely confident,’ but some of this wears on you mentally,” Westburg said in February when asked about his confidence in his ability to be an everyday player again. “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.”

Third base has been a hole in the Orioles’ lineup in his absence. Former top prospect Coby Mayo has received the majority of starts at the position so far this year, but he’s struggled to run with the opportunity both at the plate and in the field. As a result, the Orioles (20-24) are considering Jackson Holliday as a potential option, and the 2022 No. 1 overall pick is playing third on his rehabilitation assignment as he works back from hamate surgery.

“It’s really hard to fill everyday-third-baseman shoes like Jordan Westberg’s without the ability to plan for it, and we’re having to work through it on the fly,” Elias said.

“We’ve been putting him over there during his rehab. I think he’ll be there a couple more times this weekend. I hate to do that to him; it’s so quick and sudden, but he did come up as a shortstop, so he’s got experience on the left side of the infield. We talked about it with him thoroughly. He understands the situation. We’re just trying to keep our options open to as much versatility as possible.”

For Westburg, who’s under team control through 2029 and arbitration eligible for the first time this offseason, the surgery wipes out an entire season and sets him up for a lengthy rehab he must endure before he will be able to play another game for Baltimore again. He doesn’t face the 12- to 18-month timeline that pitchers do when they have Tommy John surgery, but it won’t be until 2027 that Westburg will be able to make an impact on the field for Baltimore again.

“It sucks. I feel for him,” manager Craig Albernaz said Wednesday. “In Jordan’s case, it’s the oblique, then it was the arm and rehabbing the arm. It’s a lot, especially for him and talking with him, he’s hanging in there best he could. But also, it weighs on you. You want to be out here. You want to be out here competing, being with the boys, playing the game he loves, and he’s just hamstrung by this right now. So, that sucks. I feel for him.”