Jordan Westburg acknowledges it’s not an important analogy. After all, it implies he’s useless.
Baseball is a recreation of highs and lows, hots and colds, peaks and valleys. That up-and-down nature, the Orioles’ infield prospect stated, prompts ideas of a coronary heart fee monitor.
“It’s a little morbid,” Westburg stated, “however I need to be that flatline as a lot as I can.
“If you can ride that flatline, that consistency, man, I feel like that’s when your potential is maximized.”
To those that have witnessed the 24-year-old’s climb up Baltimore’s minor league system, he frequents that area typically. They name him a “gamer” and a “grinder.” He’s “dependable,” “scrappy” and “professional.” But no phrase higher defines Jordan Westburg than constant.
“The ‘C word’ in baseball is the most important word,” fellow infield prospect Connor Norby stated. “That’s what we all strive to do, be as consistent as possible. And that’s him.”
In a company stocked with younger expertise, Westburg was the Orioles’ minor league participant of the yr in 2022, hitting 27 house runs, driving in 106 runs and posting an .852 OPS between Double-A and Triple-Some time 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, 9 have been a minimum of 101 mph, a fee 17.5% above league common coming into Tuesday.
At the beginning of camp, Baltimore’s roster included six infielders who appeared on a minimum of one preseason record of the sport’s high 100 prospects, and Westburg is the one one past high total prospect Gunnar Henderson nonetheless jockeying for a gap day roster spot. His capacity to earn one can be troublesome, with Henderson a part of a longtime rotation that additionally consists of Adam Frazier, Jorge Mateo and Ramón Urías, however Westburg’s continued presence exhibits the majors are inside attain.
“The more he exposes himself to the major league coaching staff, the more they’re gonna like him,” Triple-A Norfolk supervisor Buck Britton stated, “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 seen the identical. Left-hander Drew Rom stated a few of Double-A Bowie’s pitchers final season referred to Westburg as “The Captain,” bringing the nickname over from High-A Aberdeen the yr earlier than. Westburg figures he’s carried himself this manner because the summer season after his sophomore yr at Mississippi State. At occasions, he “let my emotions get the best of me,” however he discovered to play with “controlled aggressiveness” within the wood-bat Cape Cod Baseball League.
After his junior yr season was reduce brief by the coronavirus pandemic, the Orioles drafted Westburg thirtieth total in 2020, and he introduced that strategy into his skilled profession. He stated it’s one he modeled after his dad’s favourite participant, 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 stated. “I just put some pieces together, and I figured, ‘All right, maybe this is what I’m missing.’”
Westburg’s an enormous fan of Hall of Fame outfielder Ken Griffey Jr., however is aware of “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 known as “Mr. Dependable.” He’s additionally studied present Rangers shortstop Corey Seager; though Westburg is a few inches shorter than the 6-foot-4 Seager, he values the instance of a much 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 stated. “I kind of want to be unnoticed in a way.”
But Westburg’s efficiency makes it laborious to look away.
‘A smile to your face’
Westburg and Henderson largely climbed the minors collectively, with Henderson reaching the majors first final summer season. The thought of enjoying alongside him at Camden Yards “brings a smile to your face,” Westburg stated.
That’s saying one thing. It takes so much to get Westburg to smile.
“That’s somebody who always brings a straight face to the ballpark,” right-hander Grayson Rodriguez stated.
“It’s definitely in a big situation whenever he shows a little bit of emotion,” Henderson stated.
“He has that even-keeled, ‘I’m not going to show a lot of emotion’ way of going about it,” left-hander Bruce Zimmermann stated. “He plays with a lot of fire. He just masks [his emotions] pretty well.”
“He doesn’t BS around,” Norby stated. “When it comes to Westy, it’s very business.”
When Westburg countered — cracking a smile as he stated, “I’m not like a robot that everybody makes me out to be” — outfield prospect Colton Cowser laughed incredulously as he packed a bag close by. Cowser known as Westburg “Mr. Routine,” acknowledging he’ll take part in locker room banter so long as it doesn’t happen too near first pitch.
At occasions, Westburg “takes it to the extreme,” Norby stated, and Britton and Double-A Bowie supervisor Kyle Moore agreed. But each coaches additionally stated it’s what makes him stand out amid the group’s proficient crop of infielders. Nothing’s extra more likely to make Westburg smile than successful, Moore stated.
“When he locks it in mentally for hours at a time, he’s been pretty unstoppable in the minor leagues,” Moore stated. “He elevates folks round him. If you’re participating in a dialog with Westy and also you’re one other participant, it’s by no means any shenanigans about what occurred final night time or something outdoors 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 stated Westburg turns into “a different guy” when he begins to chill out postgame, although he typically sees that within the type of Westburg turning on the Orioles’ recreation. Britton stated he has some inside jokes with Westburg he’ll flip to when he wants Westburg to loosen up, however he’s at all times cognizant of timing.
“He’s just so intense out there, man,” Britton stated. “I don’t wanna say it’s slightly a lot as a result of it’s pure, it’s real, however I feel there are occasions the place you’ve obtained to determine a technique to get Westy out of his personal 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 enormously about his job, however he desires it nearly to take a look at if he doesn’t. He stated he retains himself on that “flatline” with self-reminders that his efficiency shouldn’t be all that issues.
“It’s not about perfection,” Westburg stated. “It’s not about outcomes straight away. Sometimes, it’s in regards to the course of. Sometimes, it’s not even about your self. 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 an enormous leaguer’
Westburg “can roll out of bed and hit,” Zimmermann stated, however loads of preparation separates Westburg’s wake-up time and when he first steps right into a batter’s field towards an opposing pitcher.
For day video games this spring, he has aimed to be on the Orioles’ Ed Smith Stadium complicated by 6:30 every morning. He offers himself a couple of minutes to decompress within the clubhouse, eats breakfast, then heads to the load room to activate his physique earlier than taking any swings. His routine within the batting cage adjustments considerably relying on how he feels or who the Orioles are going through that day, however 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 stated, “he’s gonna attack and make it a non-weakness.”
But weaknesses are laborious to search out in Westburg’s recreation. When it involves baseball’s 5 instruments, he has all of them, even when he’s thought to be extra stable than exceptional in any of them.
“He does everything really well,” Norby stated. “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 world he most must develop.
“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 stated.
Again enjoying across the infield this spring, Westburg has tried to achieve insights on every place from others in camp. Urías received a Gold Glove at third base final season, and on condition that Urías additionally has expertise at each center infield spots, Westburg has requested how he approaches third base in a different way. He’s studied how Mateo, metrically one in all baseball’s finest shortstops in 2022, works there, attempting to take items from his, Henderson’s and 2022 first total decide Jackson Holliday’s video games after watching Joey Ortiz play there recurrently final yr. Second base is the place Westburg feels most comfy, he stated, however he’s nonetheless discovered from Frazier, second-year utility participant Terrin Vavra and Norby, analyzing their footwork and strategy to completely different feeds.
The Orioles’ depth at every of these positions exhibits “we’re in a really, really prime spot to jump on some people,” Westburg stated, however he’s additionally conscious of what it’d imply for the gamers. In most different organizations, Moore stated, “Westy would be the front page of every single media publication of the entire organization.” In Baltimore, there are questions on his place sooner or later.
“At the end of the day, there’s nine guys in the field,” Westburg stated. “I belief that my skills are adequate to get me to the massive leagues. When, I don’t know. I don’t actually care. How, don’t care. I’d simply like to be there. I’d love to assist out in any manner.
“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 hypothesis that might be an space the Orioles deal from ought to they be in competition at this summer season’s commerce deadline; Baltimore already despatched one well-regarded minor league infielder, Darell Hernaiz, to the Oakland Athletics so as to add left-hander Cole Irvin to its rotation this offseason.
Westburg tries to not concern himself with that chance. His future within the recreation, he believes, received’t arrive with no concentrate on the current.
“Anytime I find myself floating that way, I try and quickly shut it down,” Westburg stated. “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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Source: www.bostonherald.com