Pitching prospect Luis Ortiz is with the Pirates and is expected to start Tuesday’s game, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He’s already on the 40-man roster but the club will need a corresponding move to get him onto the active roster. The club announced that he’s on the taxi squad today, meaning the move won’t be official until tomorrow.
The 24-year-old Ortiz wasn’t initially a highly-touted prospect, signing with the Pirates as an international amateur in 2018 for a modest bonus of just $25K. However, he’s vaulted himself onto the map with some strong work in recent years. He spent 2021 in Single-A, posting a 3.09 ERA in 87 1/3 innings that year. He struck out 30.1% of batters faced, walked just 7.4% and got grounders on 49.1% of balls in play.
Last year, Ortiz began the season at Double-A and tossed 114 1/3 innings with a 28.6% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate and 46.8% ground ball rate. He ran into some home run troubles, however, as 19 long balls inflated his ERA to 4.64 at that level. Nonetheless, he impressed enough to get bumped to Triple-A for a couple of starts and then got called to the majors, taking the ball four times at the end of last year with a 4.50 ERA. He flashed triple-digit velocity on his fastball and even got to 99 mph on his two-seamer while also throwing a slider and a changeup.
Based on that excellent year, he started to garner the attention of prospect evaluators. Baseball America ranked him the #74 prospect in baseball coming into this year and FanGraphs had him at #77. He was sent to Triple-A to begin this year and is doing very well so far with a 2.23 ERA through his first seven starts. His .214 batting average on balls in play and 82.2% strand rate suggest there’s a bit of good luck in there, but he’s getting grounders at a 54.1% clip while striking out 22.8% of opponents and walking 8.7%.
The Pirates have a need for another starter with Vince Velasquez recently landing on the 15-day injured list due to elbow inflammation. It’s still unclear how long he will be out of action, but it seems Ortiz will likely get a few turns through the rotation next to Mitch Keller, Rich Hill, Roansy Contreras and Johan Oviedo.
Ortiz got 23 days of service time during his call-up last year and there will be 146 days left in this year’s season when he is activated tomorrow. Even if he were to stay with the big league club the rest of the season, he would end up at 169 days of service, just shy of the 172 needed to get to the one-year mark. Even if he’s now up for good, he wouldn’t reach free agency until after the 2029 season, though he would be well positioned for reaching Super Two status after 2025. Some rookies can get a full year of service time even after a late call-up by placing high in Rookie of the Year voting, but it requires being on two out of the three top 100 prospect lists from Baseball America, ESPN and MLB Pipeline. Ortiz made it onto the BA list but not the other two, meaning he won’t qualify.
That may end up being a fairly moot point if Velasquez returns in a few weeks and Ortiz gets send back to the Triple-A. Then again, Oviedo and Contreras each have an option year remaining and have been struggling of late. Perhaps there’s some chance that Ortiz can pitch well enough that he sticks and one of the others is sent back to Indianapolis when Velasquez returns.
The Pirates started out scorching hot but have cooled off significantly by losing their last seven. They are still 20-15 on the season but the excitement around the club has dimmed a bit in the past week. If they end up falling out of contention, both Hill and Velasquez would make for sensible trade deadline candidates given that they are veterans on one-year deals. That could make some more room for all their young pitchers in the rotation as the season goes along, but it would be a different situation if they manage to stay in the playoff race.
For now, the club will get a look at one of their top prospects to see how he fares against big league hitters this time around and if he can cement himself as a future building block of their rotation.
I happened to see him pitch a couple of weeks ago when I went to a game in Memphis. I thought he pitched much better that day than the Cardinals more hyped prospect Matthew Liberatore.
somehow the Pirates management will find a way to ruin Ortiz’ career, I have faith in their inability to develop players
Same old trash from you. Nothing changes, just the date and time. Don’t you have something else to do but cry about the Pirates?
As a fan since 1966 and a former season ticket holder of 30 years I believe I’m permitted to scrutinize this team and its recent history of being a lousy team with a cheap owner
Don’t like my opinions, put me on mute, it won’t hurt my feelings
Hear Hear TheMan 3!!
That ’66 Pirates team was special!!
Stargell in left field, Clendenon at first, Maury Wills at third.
And of course, Clemente and Maz at their HOF positions!
TheMan has-been sworn in as a Pirates expert.
Wills didn’t become a Buc unit 67 I think. Jim Paglaroni played 3rd in 66 but the greatest double play combination in history, Alley at shortstop and Maz at 2nd produced 215 double plays
Bob Bailey and third then. Pagliaroni was the catcher.
@TheMan it must be exhausting to put so my negative energy towards the Pirates. How do you do it?
Alley was the finest shortstop in baseball for 1966 and 1967 until he got hurt and basically became a utility man afterwards.
It was really a shame as he was an all star player and really could have helped the Pirates for a number of years.
He started his own printing company in Richmond after his baseball career was over.
I stand corrected, thanks DCartrow
I already explained that to you. Apparently you suffer from reading comprehension issues and don’t understand the written word
Alley had a very good offensive season in 1966 to go along with his defensive skills
Joseph pagan was basically the third baseman..pagliaroni was a catcher and was backed by Jesse gonder….yes I too loved the 66 BUCCOS.
Matty Alou also shocked the world by winning the batting title, beating out, among others, his brother Felipe.
Matty Alou was the player received for decent swingman Joe Gibbon.Harry Walker knew he could work with him to make him a much better hitter by bunting and chopping the ball to take advantage of his speed from the left side of the plate.
Alou was a fine hitter with the Pirates but his fielding was soso,and he ultimately brought Vic Davalillo and Nelson Briles back in trade.
I’m skeptical whether he has the stuff to be more than a 5 starter.
He seems to have decent command but a 22% K rate is very low. Sure 22% is around league average in mlb but 22% at AAA is probably like 18% or so in the majors.
Stuff+ was 117 in his MLB starts last season (25% K), and 128 in spring training this year, but only 97 in AAA so far. Will be interesting to see how he looks tomorrow.
Ortiz has some great stuff. I believe his upside relies on the development of a workable changeup. His #1 and slider are both ++ offerings. Need that change to develop and the Pirates have a legit rotation piece here.
I think Ortiz just needs more time in AAA but the Pirates have no choice.He has pitched well there but has averaged less than 5 innings per start.This is another development year so I think it good to see how he does as I think that he had only one bad game last year in four starts.
This is the beginning of a 3 pitcher battle between Ortiz, Roansy and Oviedo for the 4th and 5th rotation spots when VV is back healthy. The SPs have to be better. Keller is developing into something pretty nice, but Hill and VV as the #2 and #3 starters is cringe level. But the guys at the back-end are probably worse. And Quinn Priester has not proven yet he is ready. Winning/losing begins with that rotation and things were going good for a while there, but now the rotation is falling back to earth and they basically have only been competitive in 1 of their last 6 games against the beasts from the East. It’s a process, the Pirates are not as bad as they’ve shown lately, but clearly not as good as they looked in April
Vince was great.
Kwolf-After today,I think that Keller already is something nice.The Pirates rarely have a starter make the all star team but this guy seems like the real deal.
Hill and VV are decent #3 pitchers on a decent team,barring injuries.
Oviedo and Roansy are young pitchers who are inconsistent but do have talent and need to become more consistent.
What worries me is the lack of depth in the system.They May have some in the lower leagues but I do not see much at AAA.They will never be able to compete with teams like Atlanta,Dodgers,Guardians,and Rays who all play good fundamental baseball but who also churn out the starting pitchers consistently.
I have been waiting for his call up. Glad he is up and I hope he helps limit the damage. Now they need to figure out that offense while McCutchen, Choi, and Cruz are out of action over the next month or so. I know it will hinder his progress as catcher, but Davis in DH right now, seems like a golden ticket and a winner. I would take anything that could boost that lineup right now and end this skid. Davis is probably the only guy in the minors who should be considered at the MLB level for his offense upside. Nick Gonzales, Travis Swaggerty, and others are underperforming at this point to make an impact at the MLB level. I believe Davis can draw some serious blood at the MLB and boost this dreadful lineup without McCutchen, Choi, and Cruz in it. Please Ben Cherington, bring the kid up and help this club!
Cutch isn’t out a month. Probably starts tonight.
Thanks GM. I thought he was out for at least another 2 weeks
how could Cutch be out of action when he’s playing tonight?
Maybe it’s time to get your eyes examined
TheMan don’t be an idiot. He was out and I didn’t see the lineup last night. You really are miserable little punk.
The’Man’ 3
Maybe it’s time to get your eyes gouged.
Why Shelton continues to play van meter Mattias is mind boggling….and you are seeing Keller become one of the better pitchers in baseball…time for contract negotiations….and YES. Give it a rest in negativity…. BUCCOS just hit a losing streak …I still see 85 wins
Buuba-Mathias was just sent down when the Pirates realized that they needed a ML shortstop.He was a waiver claim who provides excellent utility man depth.He is no Van Meter.
Give your negativity a rest.
“But the excitement around the club has dimmed in the past week”
I should say so with a seven game losing streak.
Anyone who thought that April was anywhere near realistic is due for fools gold.
Pittsburgh does not have the depth nor the basics to compete with the better teams.
I bet on 69 games to win but thought that 72 was more realistic.
That total would show an improvement.The lack of pitching depth could squander even that total.
They did provide a lot of excitement,not seen since the glory years of 2013-2015,and hopefully can start playing better baseball.
But anyone who thinks that this is anywhere near a bona fide playoff team is going to be sadly mistaken.
While I agree with you, Mendoza, the chances of an entire team being in a massive slump at the same time is pretty slim even for the very worst teams in baseball
And they aren’t that bad, but aren’t that good either.
Still I blame their offensive woes on poor coaching, whether it’s running or hitting
Maybe it’s time for Shelton to mix up the lineup
All because of schedule. They won and lost when they should have for the most part. Team was firing at maximum ability.
Last week was brutal though. Complete opposite of April. Should have won a game or two even against superior teams. Too many weak defenders. Bad base running. Cold bats. It’s almost impossible to win with the weak stuff Oviedo and Contreras had. Sometimes you don’t have it but another game or 2 and it’s trouble. To have any chance at a winning record those 2 need to find their stuff. Vince needs to be good to go.
I can dig the Pirates, their direction and just about everything else they got going (sans Nutting) but unfortunately we don’t always catch many of their games out my way. Just what exactly is “wrong” with Roansy, if anything? His peripherals seem nice but his velo does seem to be a MPH lower. I haven’t watched one of his starts this year, but I enjoyed watching him in ’22. Any insight is appreciated, thanks Buccos.
Surprised it’s only 1 mph. Pirates have pitchers throw a ton of breaking balls. When they aren’t breaking Contreras and even more so Oviedo get crushed. Seems last couple games for both they didn’t have even ok movement. Mostly 2 pitch pitchers and their fastball isn’t good enough to fight out days they don’t have the breaking.
Young pitchers are always going to have bad games.Sandy Koufax was a bad pitcher for four or five years when he came up.I do think that Oscar Marin has done a very good job.
Mitch Keller was no ace his first three years but looks like a #1 now.
You were right in your previous post.The Pirates beat the teams that they should have beat,and the starters were doing much better than I thought that they would.Regression was inevitable.I figured that they would lose 4 of 6 to the Rays and Jays.But it seems that they just disintegrated and that brought bad memories.
I hope that they can go 500 for the season which would be quite an improvement.But I just do not see the fundamentals and see the over aggressive baserunning trend that has been a hallmark of bad teams.
Ortiz was mentioned, very early, as having a slim chance to make the opening day roster. He may still surprise people. There’s not too many teams that have great depth, at any and all positions, so I don’t know why that’s constantly brought up. 3 people from the opening day roster, and one who would have probably been there, JT, are currently on the 60 day DL. They’ve still done some winning anyway, and through shear luck, still lead the division. The weakest position is probably catchers, and that’s probably contributed a little to the recent pitching problems. Continually calling for sliders, even though they’re looking like batting practice fastballs and getting crushed for example. Not hitting your weight (Hedges). Costly errors in the field. This was posted after Keller pitched a gem so maybe I’m overreacting.
Those catchers are only their because of their handling of pitchers. They aren’t the problem. What else are they going to call? These guys aren’t Darvish Musgrove with 6 pitches. If their slider isn’t working they are done for.
Many teams do lack sufficient pitching depth.With the pervasive amount of serious injuries to pitchers only the better teams can withstand it either by developing them on a consistent basis or buying them through free agency.The Pirates are particularly vulnerable in losing Brubaker and then Burrows.
The Pirates catching has been a strong point and one of the reasons for the great April that they had.Hedges was never going to hit and Delay has been a very pleasant surprise.
Dream GM pointed out that Roansy and Oviedo cannot rely on their fastballs alone when their breaking balls are not working and they must develop a dependable third pitch.
Ortiz May prove to be a good pitcher as he does throw hard and hopefully VV comes back soon at full strength and Ortiz proves to be the the fourth or fifth starter so that the Pirates do have depth with a good sixth starter.
Yeah losing 2 starters for the season is a death blow. Ortiz needs to be at least ok. I think he can be. Vince has to come back strong.
I don’t think it is a blow that strong but they no longer have any backup plan after Ortiz as Priester has been pretty bad in AAA.
Cole Irvin was sent down a few weeks ago and I thought that he may be a candidate to trade for as it is very difficult to get decent starting pitching now in trade as every team has pitchers dropping like flies.