The Orioles have formally selected the contract of top infield prospect Jordan Westburg from Triple-A Norfolk, per a club announcement. The move was reported to be in the works yesterday afternoon. Baltimore opened a spot on the 40-man roster by passing catcher Jose Godoy through outright waivers. Godoy will remain in Triple-A but no longer occupy a spot on the 40-man roster. Fellow infielder Joey Ortiz was optioned to Norfolk to open a spot on the active 26-man roster for Westburg, who’ll make his MLB debut in tonight’s game.
Westburg, 24, was the No. 30 overall pick in the 2020 draft and has ripped through Triple-A pitching this year, slashing .295/.372/.567 with 18 homers, 15 doubles, a pair of triples and a perfect six-for-six showing in stolen bases. He’s walked in 9.6% of his plate appearances against a 21.3% strikeout rate. Westburg is widely regarded as one of the sport’s 100 best prospects, ranking prominently on lists compiled by Baseball America (No. 41), MLB.com (No. 34) and many others.
Given that pedigree, Westburg will likely be given the opportunity for regular plate appearances. His promotion could cut into the playing time for veteran second baseman Adam Frazier (who’s also capable of playing left field) and slumping shortstop Jorge Mateo. Westburg has primarily been a shortstop in his minor league career, but he’s also logged considerable time at third base and second base, in addition to some brief cameos in the outfield corners.
As for the 28-year-old Godoy, he came to the O’s about three weeks ago in a cash trade with the Yankees. The former Cardinals farmhand has quickly become something of a journeyman, as the O’s are his sixth organization since 2019. He’s appeared in 26 big league games — split between the Mariners, Twins and Pirates — but has just a .123/.194/.140 batting line in a tiny sample of 62 plate appearances. He has a much better .272/.327/.412 batting line in 671 Triple-A plate appearances across parts of four seasons, and Godoy is regarded as a quality defensive option behind the dish as well. He’ll remain with the O’s and serve as a depth option with their top affiliate.
Godoy, mate!
Good move. I don’t think Westburg will go back down. Kids got 4 plus tools.
They would have been better off bringing him up when he was on fire. Has been going through a rough patch as of late compared to how he was hitting.
I get the timeline you are referencing here, but Westburg was 5-9 his last two games with a home run!
Agreed I think they were waiting for him to bust out of that slump – and he did.
Only starter? So do you just not watch when Wells (2nd best WHIP) and Kremer pitch? They have been as good as any threesome since May. In addition Gibson, last start aside has given them exactly what they expected.
this is a great move by the orioles.i dont think my yankees are going to catch them.
Long season sir, yanks will start gathering all the cavalry from mid July to the trade deadline,just have a little patience. O’s have not got into a slump, yet.
If Westburg comes up and sticks (meaning he’s productive with the bat and at least a reasonable fielder) I think that he should stay and the Orioles should look at trading Mateo while letting Urias be the IF backup as Urias can play 3B, SS, or 2B.
“But his glove”…I know, I know…but I will return to my Cesar Izturis argument from years ago…the number of runs Mateo may save with his glove are greatly overshadowed by the number he doesn’t produce with his bat.
They could probably also get something decent for Mateo. I favor bats over gloves for the Orioles because they are intent on not picking up starting pitching. The only starter right now that you could say is “effective” is Bradish. Gibson is slowly turning into what he is (a back end guy), Wells has a low ERA but metrics say he’s lucky and likely to regress, Kremer isn’t much, and Grayson R still needs to show it at the MLB level when he returns. Can’t seriously make a playoff run with this staff.
Mateo’s gotta be better with the bat. He’s been an automatic out for the last month and a half.
He still provides value as a pinch runner and D replacement if he can’t swing it. He’s played other positions than SS also so there’s some versatility there with him.
im a yankee fan.and i have not heard or seen any of the orioles higher ups say, they are not bringing another starting pitcher in.you must be listening to that locked on orioles guy.he is as bad as our locked on yankees gal stacy.niether one of them know much about what the teams are going to do.and niether one could operate a team.that being said .could you direct me to a site where orioles gm said we are intent on not bringing pitching in,mr thornton mellon?
slimray – going off precedent. Even in 2012-16 as well as 2022 they didn’t bring in starting pitching in midseason when contending. No site has any specific pitchers the Orioles are targeting at this time of year either. You only see the “we need starting pitching” from various sites.
As a Yankees’ fan you should know at least that the Yankees will try to fill in their gaps at the trade deadline each year, unlike the Orioles. Their biggest problem this year by far is health which has kept them from advancing beyond 10 games above .500
Thornton Mellon;
That’s fine.
So far the O’s have brought up Vavra, Ortiz, Lester, and Stowers from the farm for short spurts this year. All hit well in the minors. They’ve been overmatched in the majors. The O’s have a strong bench, are in a pennant race, and can’t afford to give a young position player 15-20 PA’s a week for 6 weeks along with time in the field to see if he can hit/play at the ML level.
They have a need for pitchers – even more relief pitchers than starting pitchers as they have no consistent bridge from the starters to Coulombe, Cano, and Bautista…all of whom they’re burning out.
Hitting doesn’t support pitching, defense does. Teams count pitches today. Defenders that don’t make plays that can be made – no matter how difficult – force pitchers to make extra pitchers, meaning they come out of a game sooner than if the plays are made. That’s a serious cost if the pitching depth on the roster is low.
Mateo is one of the best defensive SS’s in MLB. He’s also one of the fastest and smartest baserunners. Things he does in those 2 areas turn the momentum in games.
Very few rookies come up to the major leagues and are immediately productive. The game is faster, the tricks veterans use on them takes time to adjust to. My guess is that the O’s are looking to see if any of their name minor leaguers can produce in 2023. If not, they’ll be open to trading a few to get some of the pitching they need…..and trading for pitching is expensive. It’s nice to talk about Henderson, Ortiz, Westbrooks ability to play SS. But reality is that by 2025 – and possibly the 2nd half or 2024 – Jackson Holliday will be ready to step in as the O’s starting SS. Until then, Mateo is a bridge.
Dillon Tate’s apart of the bridge. He’ll be back as soon as he irons things out. I think Baumann has the ability to step up too. We may get 1 reliever but I think it’s imperative that a starter is added. The team nor bullpen can sustain Cole Irvin pitching every 5 days.
We haven’t seen Dillion Tate.
Givens has looked awful. He’s a fraction of what he was in his prime. Can’t throw most of his pitchers. Baumann is inconsistent as are Perez, Baker, and Akin. Each of those guys has come in the past month and blown games as they couldn’t get through 1-2 innings……and it wasn’t a one-time thing for any of them.
It’s one thing for a starter not to have a good game, but the team can recover. It’s another for a short reliever to come in and turn a lead into aa deficient within an inning or two.
I hear you. I don’t think it’s going to be a particularly strong reliever market for buyers though. Is a Kendall Graveman really better than Mike Baumann? Not sure about that. Hopefully Dillon Tate and possibly DL Hall can come in and give us the internal boost that we need there. I’m not expecting much from Givens at this point.
On the starting pitching end—none of our guys have thrown 150+ innings except for Gibson & Irvin. Irvin is a total 0 right now. Not a crazy thought to think that one or multiple of Kremer, Wells, or Bradish starts to wear down as the season drags on.
I’d feel a lot better about the teams chances with another starter. It’s going to be hard to absorb cole Irvin’s 4 inning starts. Tough to rely on Means coming back from TJ and being a guy later on too. If we get a boost from him—great.
Wells, probably the best starter, may also face an innings limit
Mateo is hitting .222 overall and that includes a morbid .157 since the beginning of May…striking out 1/3 of the time with only 5 XBH since 5/1. That’s less than they’ve gotten from the young guys coming up. Urias provides better value with the bat and can play 2B/SS/3B. Mateo may be a great baserunner but that doesn’t come into play much with the .201 OBP he’s put up since 5/1.
I am also afraid – as I am every year – that the bullpen gets fried. Goes along with the annual late season fades the Orioles tend to have at least 80% of the time. Starting pitching can hide the hole that Mateo’s been in the lineup.
I also think they are waiting for Holliday but its different when you are supposedly contending versus being a 60 win team. Build a better bridge to Holliday.
Thornton Mellon;
Writing to you is like writing last August / September about the Astros and why their trading for catcher Christian Vazquez at the deadline was to provide some time off for Martin Maldonado, and give them some assurance that were he injured during the playoffs the team would have a veteran catcher to take his place.
I kept trying to explain, but everyone from the writers to the posters here continued to write that it was only a matter of time before Vazquez replaced Maldonado in the line up, quoting Maldonado’s BA of around .150. The Astros never had any intention to play Vazquez over Maldonado.
The Astros got to and won the World Series with Maldonado playing about every game – if not every game – in the playoffs. In the offseason the Astros let Vazquez go in free agency. Everyone affiliated with the Astros organization from the FO, manager, scouts, analysts, coaches, players, writers and broadcasters – and even Astros fans – knew that that Martin Maldonado was one of the top 3 most valuable players responsible for that WS win.
As per your post – the Orioles have been so bad for so long that many of their fans confuse MLB with Rotisserie League – the team having the players with the best stats wins. On the other hand, Astros fans had seen their team as a contender for 6 years before 2022, including one WS win. They know what wins.
You need to quit telling me Jorge Mateo’s batting average, and read what I wrote over and over until it gets through. That team is short pitching, and Mateo at SS makes plays for them that few SS’s in MLB can make – and surely not Henderson, Urias or Westburg. His range is simply phenomenal, as was seen last night when he went 20 feet to the 2B side of the bag and ran into Westburg that was backhanding a ground ball…..that in turn he had no chance whatsoever of throwing the runner out at 1B as his momentum was carrying him away from 1B and he’d have to throw across his body. On the other hand, Mateo was running towards 1B and has a far stronger arm than Westburg. He routinely makes that play, and Oriole 2B’s know better that to get in his way (doubt Westburg will in the future). At the time it was a tight game and could have cost the O’s. There are few – if any SS’s in MLB that have that sort of range / arm and make that play. Sorry if the stats don’t show it. That’s a difference between a team that wins and loses….especially one with a below average pitching staff.
P.S.
The Orioles had a SS in the 60’s 70’s named Mark Belanger. His career BA was .228. He was one of the best fielding SS’s in MLB.
He played 17 years with the O’s and was instrumental in their being
a winning team.
Orioles history didn’t start when you started following them.
Samuel
Your condescension is both annoying and completely unfounded.
#1 I remember the last few years of Belanger. Yes, I’m old enough, so your reasoning there is garbage.. This was also an era when the Orioles had a starting pitcher winning 20 games a year, if not more than one (FOUR one year). Year in and year out, the top or one of the top 3 staffs in the league plus generally an above average offense year after year overall. When your pitching is that dominant, you don’t need to lean on the offense quite as heavily. Plus this was a different era when BA and runs were way down, not at all far removed from an era when only one player in the AL hit .300 in a season.
#2 The Orioles tried this same strategy with Izturis for 2 years and ended up getting JJ Hardy for the exact same reasoning I am giving.. In fact, the same arguments happened with Izturis.. “He’s got a great glove” (slightly above 0 runs saved). “He can run!” (his OBP was .270, so if he could run we didn’t see it much).
#3 The Astros you reference had far, FAR, FARRRRRRR superior starting pitching then than the Orioles have now. You can get away with an offensive hole in the lineup a little better. See #1 above. In fact, in 2017 they employed FOUR above average full time starters, had a good bullpen, and that’s not counting the abbreviated season from some guy named Justin Verlander. I heard he was pretty good.
#4 For the ONE play that happened last night that you spent a paragraph on, what are the odds that this happens with two outs and that guy is immediately stranded? Or erased on a DP? Or Westburg or another SS gets the out anyway? You are probably one who fawns over Jeter’s “defensive prowess” because of jump throws and the occasional athletic plays like that where if you instead have a Cal Ripken who positions correctly and makes sound throws with his feet planted you have the same or better defensive results.
#5 Need I remind you that Belanger was not the only good defender the Orioles had back then, I think in the 70s the Orioles had 2 of the top 5 all time defensive TEAMS. Some guy named Brooks Robinson played 3B and he was a pretty good defender too.
#6 Another example: mid 90s Indians and Omar Vizquel. The other 8 slots in their lineup were all well above average AND they had a dominant pitching staff. The Orioles have neither to lean on, they need all the offensive help they can get.
I am going to continue to tell you Mateo’s BA and OBP (.200 in the past 2 months – whoo hoo!!!!) until the Orioles get him out of the lineup. He is not a major league caliber hitter and is holding the team back – preventing more runs from being scored with his bat than runs he prevents with his glove. I can give you a paragraph but will just simply state he also left a runner stranded in 2 AB last night, ending a rally with his weak hitting. So even if he saved a run with that play he also lost one.
Wells leads all MLB starters in WHIP. He must be really lucky
#Samuel; good afternoon.
Stowers definitely overmatched. Not enough consistent playing time to tell with Joey O for me. Lester, hmmm?
IMO, Vavra sticks as that super utility guy; and hopefully with Os. Offensive footprint is big enough to indicate an ok BA with a healthy OBP. The emergence of Hicks and the FO’s love affair with McKenna have him blocked as an OF sub. And then of course there’s the massive infield log jam. Attitude guy .. not intimidated by the bright lights of the show.
Jeff I also don’t understand why McKenna sees so much time. It seems they always have a guy that is completely unproductive who continues to see a lot of time: Mike Wright, Ryan Flaherty, David Lough, etc.
His BABIP is .191 and his FIP is 4.63. I’m just saying those numbers make him a tremendous regression candidate.
Here are some things I am watching/worried about with the Orioles, for those who can look at things neutrally without orange-colored glasses…
1. They have SIX relievers on pace for 65-70+ appearances this year. Multiple relievers are going to break down after the ASB with that workload without help from somewhere.
2. I have stated before that I was impressed with the improvement the Orioles have made with plate patience this year, particularly Mullins. This has slipped since early May when they were #1 in walks, they’re 8th now and have been 11th recently…had to do somewhat with easy April schedule versus May/June. They need to keep that stat up in the top half of the AL. to keep the runs flowing.
3. The BA/OBP/OPS combination is currently each rated 6th. This can’t slip any lower or the risk is the offense will drop below the “good enough” line.
4. They are outperforming their pythagorean W/L by a high margin. Good teams will usually beat it by a couple games, but not by quite the margin the Orioles currently maintain. They are also 13-8 in one run games. Even on good teams, these tend to regress over time. Remember the 2012 team which was basically a .500 team with ridiculous luck in 1-run games.
5. Guys like Irvin continue to get starts. That needs to be addressed in the next month. I’ll repeat: picking up a top end starter makes the entire rotation improve (slotting).
6. Not too worried about 2nd half schedule. They’re halfway on their AL east slate at the halfway point, and in the 2nd half while they have some Dodgers, Astros, and Arizona they have Rockies, A’s and Nats to even it out. In other years a second half fade was helped along by a heavy Yankees/Red Sox load down the stretch. Its a more even schedule this year – it is at least neutral for them.
7. I have faith that guys like Rutschman, Henderson, Mullins, and Santander will keep their 1st half production or even improve upon where they are. Hays may slip, and who knows if Mountcastle will come back and improve. Mateo (and Frazier to a lesser extent) aside, this is the most solid the lineup overall has looked since 2016. It isn’t a dominating offense, but it can remain “good enough.” It will certainly need to if pitching is not addressed via trade, or something like Grayson Rodriguez coming back up and having it figured out.
Last year after 78 games the Orioles were 35-43, but about to go on a 21-8 stretch. They are much better off being 48-30 now, so playoff chances are much better without depending on a huge run like that when everything went right.