Ortiz eager to live up to expectations
PHOENIX – After mostly spinning his wheels in the minor leagues with the Milwaukee Brewers, Luis Ortiz is looking to finally gain some traction and make some significant progress this season toward realizing his immense talent.
To that end, the 22-year-old is making the most of his first taste of major-league camp. He’s soaking up the knowledge provided by veterans such as Yovani Gallardo, is in better shape and, most important, fully recovered from the right-hamstring issues that truncated what could have been a breakout 2017 season.
“This is the biggest step right here,” Ortiz said, referring to 2018. “It’s either make it or break it. Basically I’ve got to give it all I have. This is my Rule 5 year, so I have to go out and impress. After a year
of injuries last year, I’m just hoping the hamstring has no problems.
“I’m just going to go out and whatever happens, happens.”
There have been exceptionally high hopes for Ortiz since he first joined the Brewers on Aug. 1, 2016, when he came from the Texas Rangers along with Lewis Brinson and, later, Ryan Cordell in exchange for Jonathan Lucroy and Jeremy Jeffress.
Brinson and Cordell have since been traded, leaving Ortiz as the last man standing in a trade that proved to be a big building block for the Brewers in their brief two-year overhaul.
Ortiz was selected 30th overall out of high school by the Rangers in 2014. That was 18 spots lower than Milwaukee’s first-round pick that year, left-hander Kodi Medeiros, who scuffled in 2017 at advanced Class A Carolina.
Ortiz advanced to Class AA with Texas before being traded in 2016, and finished that season by making six starts at Class AA Biloxi. Ortiz went 2-2 with a 1.93 earned-run average in six starts (23 1/3 innings) for the Shuckers and raised hopes he’d take a more significant step forward in 2017.
Ortiz went 3-3 with a 3.02 ERA in his first 11 starts before straining his hamstring and landing on the disabled list. He missed almost three weeks, then after being eased back into the rotation put together consecutive starts of six and seven innings in which he allowed a total of five hits, one run and one walk while striking out 13.
Then, the hamstring went out again. Ortiz missed some more time, then returned to make five more appearances (three starts, none more than four innings) before being sidelined again – this time by a case of hand-foot-and-mouth disease he contracted from his young son, Santiago.
Just like that, his season was over a few days into September. His final line was less than impressive: a 4-7 record, 4.01 ERA and 79 strikeouts in 94 1/3 innings.
“I started great then pulled the hamstring,” recalled Ortiz, a native of Sanger, Calif. “I wasn’t being too honest with the staff about my hamstring and I was trying to fight through it. I try to fight through everything. But it wasn’t the right decision and I pulled it again, twice, then I got the sickness from my son.
“What could I do but call it a year? It was all downhill from there.”
Standing 6-foot-3 and weighing 250 pounds, Ortiz cuts a big figure on the mound. He worked his lower half especially hard in the off-season with an eye on increased durability.
“I’m going to be a big boy so I train for my size,” he said. “I lifted heavy and strengthened the hamstrings for what I do and strengthened up my core. Hopefully everything goes good this year. Staying healthy is the main thing, and hopefully everything I did in the off-season pays off this year.”
Ortiz said he already has met with Brewers general manager David Stearns and manager Craig Counsell and been given some guidelines for the upcoming season.
“The biggest key with me is just staying healthy and maybe shedding some weight,” he said. “That’s always been a key, my weight, so that’s something I’ve got to work on.
“Just work on my conditioning more and just shed some weight off. I’m working on meal preps right now. I feel great and the hamstring is good – I haven’t felt any tightness and so far everything is going as planned.”
Ortiz admitted he was a little bummed that he wasn’t able to share his first major-league camp experience with “big brother” Matt Garza, who is no longer with the organization. That hasn’t stopped him from leaning on other veterans such as Gallardo, whom he first met when both were with Texas.
“He wants to learn,” Gallardo said. “I’ve been in that situation. He’s one of those kids who wants to learn how to go about it, put the work in and see what it takes to stay in the big leagues for a long period of time.
“What I told him was to take it all in, ask questions to the guys in this clubhouse or the staff. He’s a good kid.”
When he’s right, Ortiz has the tools necessary to become a front-line starting pitcher at the major-league level. He’s generally considered the Brewers’ thirdbest pitching prospect behind Brandon Woodruff, who made his Milwaukee debut last season, and Corbin Burnes, who was named the organization’s minorleague pitcher of the year in 2017.
“He’s got an explosive fastball,” said Chris Hook, Ortiz’s pitching coach at Biloxi who since has been promoted to minor-league pitching coordinator. “He’s a guy that’s got a natural feel. Some guys have to learn it; he comes in with it. He really knows where to put his hand, he knows how to manipulate the baseball.
“He can go front to back with the changeup, and his stuff is really overpowering at times. His fastball can be 9296, and I think it has the potential to have some sink to it. He knows what to do with it, and he knows how to pitch. I think sometimes he over-pitches, and that’s a part of his maturity.
“But he is definitely a prospect who we haven’t seen his potential yet.”
With a wealth of candidates fighting for a spot in the starting rotation, Ortiz hasn’t had much of a chance to show what he can do in camp, having thrown just one Cactus League inning. At some point soon he’ll head to minor-league camp and begin preparing for what likely will be another return to Biloxi.
Counsell noted that Ortiz has yet to top 100 innings in a season. Staying healthy and hitting that benchmark are two obvious targets for him to meet.
“We’ve got to get him a full season of pitching under his belt,” he said. “That’s the main goal for him, really – get out on the mound, throw pitches, make adjustments, take the ball every fifth day.
“There’s a reason he hasn’t been over 100 innings. Being out there every fifth day, the point is that’s how you get better – you have to be out there to get better. He’s a big dude, and you’re not going to change that.
“But you do have to be healthy and you do have to get out on the field.”
Counsell termed Ortiz as “a little farther away” than the next group of young pitchers in the organization pushing their way toward the majors like Burnes and Freddy Peralta. Ortiz is confident he’ll get himself into that mix with a strong 2018.
“I felt like I fell off the map a little bit, but I’m still around. I’m still competing,” he said. “I’ve just got to prove people wrong. Just go out and show out.”