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Baltimore Orioles infielder Jordan Westburg is tearing up the competition at Triple-A Norfolk, hitting a gaudy .315/.386/.619 with 15 home runs and 48 RBI across 197 at-bats. Once Cedric Mullins (groin) went on the injured list at the end of May, discussions in fantasy circles became more boisterous regarding Westburg and the third-ranked Baltimore prospect's potential call-up.
Much to the dismay of hopeful Westburg stashers, New York Yankees castoff Aaron Hicks was picked up off the scrap heap as the substitute for Mullins.
Even so, the calls for Westburg’s promotion grow louder each week that he continues to rake, coupled with 2022 top-overall O's prospect Gunnar Henderson's quiet continuation to his rookie campaign.
What Factors Are Calling For Jordan Westburg's Promotion?
Henderson is down to a disappointing .201 average and .702 OPS with five homers, 14 RBI, and two stolen bases over 184 plate appearances. The front office was recently forced to send down fellow 2022 top-prospect Grayson Rodriguez after a failed call-up (7.35 ERA), and Henderson may not be far behind him if he doesn’t catch fire.
Jorge Mateo took a complete nosedive in May (.151 SLG in 86 at-bats) after a blasting off in April (.667 SLG in 72 at-bats). Ramon Urias hasn’t offered anything special offensively (.366 SLG in 112 at-bats) or defensively (fifth-percentile outs above average). Adam Frazier has been limited with both the bat (26.8% hard-hit rate) and the glove (second-percentile OAA).
Could Jordan Westburg Advance To The Bigs In June?
The stars could be aligning for Westburg’s major-league elevation in the imminent future as he undergoes a bit of a power surge at the dish of late as well.
Fantasy managers should consider stashing the 2020 first-round pick across most formats with the severity of Mullins’ injury not fully clarified. Westburg possesses significant power potential and defensive capabilities that could reinforce his stay in the bigs. The slugging infielder could serve as the right-handed complement in a platoon with Henderson at the very least. Baltimore could use a hand at the hot corner particularly, where Henderson has four errors committed and five overall.
Westburg might be interchangeable with Christian Encarnacion-Strand as fantasy's second-strongest redraft prospect stash behind Elly De La Cruz right now. Westburg doesn't have much left to prove in Triple-A, having slashed .287/.369/.541 with 32 big flies and a whopping 121 RBI over 629 plate appearances at that level. It's only a matter of time at this juncture, so redraft managers should try to get ahead of the 24-year-old's prospective call-up which seems to be in fairly close proximity.
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