The Mets have signed outfielder Rafael Ortega to a minor league deal, reports Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors. Ortega will report to Triple-A Syracuse.
Ortega, 32, was non-tendered by the Cubs at the end of last year and has since bounced around to various non-roster opportunities. He signed a minor league deal with the Yankees in January but requested and was granted a release when he was informed he wouldn’t make the club out of Spring Training. He quickly landed another minor league deal with the Rangers but was granted his released from that club just over a week ago. Before his release, he was hitting .226/.333/.381 through 199 plate appearances in Triple-A.
Prior to this nomadic year, Ortega had a solid two-year run with the Cubs in 2021 and 2022. He got into 221 games in those seasons and made 701 trips to the plate. He hit 18 home runs and walked at an above-average 10.6% clip. His combined .265/.344/.408 batting line amounted to a wRC+ of 108, indicating he was 8% above league average. He spent most of his time in center field, where his work was graded as just a bit below average.
Given the difficulty in finding capable center fielders who can also hold their own at the plate, that was a valuable performance. Ortega earned a combined 2.2 wins above replacement from FanGraphs over those seasons and 2.3 from Baseball Reference. Nonetheless, the Cubs decided to cut him loose rather than pay a projected arbitration salary of $1.7MM for 2023.
The Mets have a regular outfield of Brandon Nimmo, Mark Canha and Starling Marte, with Tommy Pham also in the mix. The recent injury to Pete Alonso has seen Canha spent a bit of time at first base, however, thrusting Pham into a more regular role. The designated hitter slot is also fairly up for grabs thanks to the struggles of Daniel Vogelbach, who is hitting .203/.343/.297 for the year. He hasn’t appeared in a game in over a week and Mike Puma of the New York Post recently relayed that Vogelbach is getting a mental break as the club tries to figure out how to get him back on track.
Given those factors, perhaps there’s a path for Ortega to earn his way into a reserve outfield role with the club. If he is able to get onto the roster, he is out of options but could be retained for future seasons since he currently has under three years of major league service time.
Mets get another Yankees castoff to join Robertson, Ottavino and Voit.
Kind of sounds like the Yankees relationship with the Rangers. =)
Gary Sanchez recently made a pitstop with the Mets, albeit a brief one.
Given the state of the Yankees currently, that doesn’t mean a castoff isn’t worth anything. Of course there’s not much on the Yankee roster worth much without Judge. Just sayin’
I’ll take Robbie back any day!
yup, yankee fanboy Eppler signs another bronx castoff.
Mets dumpster diving from the dumpster fire that is the Cubs.
Cubs beat the Orioles 10-3 today, Old York. Any team that gets hot for a few weeks could win the NL Central this year. Even Cincinnati is in contention.
…”Vogelbach is getting a mental break”. I’m getting a visual break from seeing him take up the entire width of my 60″ screen.
Seriously. If he can’t even play 1st base when the starting 1B is injured, then what the heck is he even doing here? Why clog up a roster space with someone who serves one, and only one function, and is not even any good at that anymore?
Lightning struck and he hit one out tonight, albeit a solo shot to make it 6-1.
So what, exactly, is it in Billy Eppler’s mind that makes this a better move than signing Raimel Tapia? Tapia is three years younger, plays much better defense, has better speed on the bases, and was available a week ago.. He’s also been hitting RH pitchers at a great clip in the majors this year.
Okay, time to preach: Having just four outfielders is a deficiency to begin with. But its an even bigger problem when three of them are 34 or older, and one of them (Marte) has been playing hurt for two months. He’s sitting out every third game anyway in order to compensate for the injury. And even with that, he is hitting like a shell of his 2022 version. Get a competent MAJOR league OF, and send Marte to the IL for 10 days so he can recover and start hitting again. . Between the team’s scheduled off days, and Marte’s added time off, he’d only miss 6 games in that span.
Tapia’s probably seeking a guaranteed major league deal, but it really shouldn’t matter if he’s getting paid by the Rangers anyway.
So give him a major league roster spot. Just to be clear, not getting too excited over a quad-A player such as Tapia. He has flaws and they will come to the fore sooner rather than later.
But for now: Sign Tapia on June 11, an put Marte on the IL:
Marte sat out that game (Sunday), anyway. Mets were off on Monday, and again on Thursday. That eats up 5 of the 10 days, with Marte missing two games. With 5 straight games after that, and given his injury schedule, Marte would have certainly sat out at least one. of those games. With the way he has (not) been hitting, how much can it hurt you to shelf him for those six games in ten days vs. the potential benefit of getting him healthy so he can produce again like he did last year? Especially with Pham being so hot these past few weeks – Marte would not have been missed.
When Marte comes back, you can finally DFA the LH hitting Vogelbach since Tapia can fill that role, as well as pinch run. And you can doo all of this without moving McNeil to the OF and sticking Escobar at 2nd.
Instead, platoon Escobar (.799 OPS against lefties this year) with Tapia at the DH spot.
This Mets roster has a dozen or more flaws and deficiencies. This one minor move could have addressed three or four of them in one shot. At least for a week or two.
McNeil playing plenty os OF. Or did I miss something?
@metman You say that as if its a good thing. Its not. Its a problem. McNeil is being used in the OF too much. McNeil is your starting 2B, not a UT player. He’s a very good IF. He’s an OK to pretty good OF. Its one thing to use him in the OF in select situations. But not as a regular rotation. Moving him to the OF requires them to put someone inferior at 2B. Escobar is streaky, and even when he hits, he only hits lefties. Guillorme doesn’t hit anybody these days, and has no power even when he does hit. . Its not a solution.
I was hoping the Aint’s wouldn’t find him. We’re screwed now.
Maybe he’ll have another ” Hot” Streak like he supposedly had with the Cubs that I missed. 300 2nd half AB’s against late season call ups. Good luck with dat, As we say in Chicago.