Baltimore Orioles Fans Go Viral During Jordan Westburg's Major League Debut
The Baltimore Orioles and Cincinnati Reds endured multiple rain delays on Monday night at Camden Yards but the personal cheering section for Orioles rookie Jordan Westburg went viral for their support of the O's prospect.
The Orioles tweeted a video showing some of the viral moments, saying "the boys showed up for Jordan Westburg's debut."
That was from a walk in his first big league appearance but Westburg also got a hit later in the game, which brought that cheering section to a fever pitch as well.
The 24-year-old Westburg is the Orioles No. 3 prospect in the organization and is ranked No. 33 overall in baseball by MLB.com.
He was drafted in the first round of the 2020 draft out of Mississippi State.
The following comes from a portion of his MLB.com prospect profile:
He’s hit his way up to the top of the system, knocking on the door particularly loudly with his 27 homers and 106 RBIs between Double-A and Triple-A in 2022.
At 6-foot-3 and around 200 pounds, Westburg is a strong and athletic infielder with legitimate power that has really showed up in games. He can drive the ball to all fields and hit the ball out anywhere, though the over-the-fence pop shows up more to his pull side. It’s a power-over-hit profile, with some swing-and-miss to his game -- though his strikeout rate actually went down a little bit in 2022 from his first full season -- and he offsets it with a healthy dose of walks (11.3 BB rate last year). He’s not a burner, but he runs well enough to take an extra base and steal a few.
Westburg has seen most of his time as a pro at shortstop, and he has the arm strength and moves well enough to play capably there.
The Orioles beat the Reds on Monday, 10-3, to move to 48-29 on the season. They currently hold the top spot in the American League wild card race.
The two teams will play again on Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. ET.
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