Ex-CSUB star Ortega’s career comes full circle
As an undersized middle infielder, Jake Ortega had to go through a bit of a transformation after arriving on the Cal State Bakersfield campus in the fall of 2015.
That was particularly true when the 5-foot-10, 145-pound freshman decided to make the shift from his natural shortstop position to catcher in an effort to fill a team need and also to earn more playing time.
The process, which included hours of training to learn to be a college catcher, culminated when the once undersized backstop developed into one of the best catchers in school history. He was rewarded a few weeks later with a 28th-round selection by the New York Mets in the 2019 MLB Draft.
“I was an infielder in high school and didn’t start catching until college, so I was a little bit behind and had to play catch-up there,” Ortega said. “I had never really caught before, but when I committed to Bakersfield, I had a chance to compete for a spot there. I owe a lot to the coaches at CSUB. They really prepared me to be a professional catcher.”
Now, a little over a year later, things appear to have come full circle for the two-time All-Western Athletic Conference performer, who batted a team-high .326 during his senior year at CSUB.
Thanks to an unexpected opportunity to play shortstop in a spring training simulation game, Ortega could see some time in the field when teams reconvene some time next year.
What started as just a fill-in role to allow Mets Cy Young pitcher Jacob deGrom to get some extra work, turned into a showcase of sorts for Ortega.
“There was a first baseman in right field and another catcher in left field,” Ortega said. “The coaches told everyone that they pretty much needed people to fill in to play defense. Pretty much everyone was out of position. And I looked out I thought, ‘I’m going to go out and play shortstop, why not?’ ”
The why and the not began to creep into his mind a few minutes later when the gravity of the situation began to settle in.
“Then I started thinking, with deGrom throwing, ‘this is a legit game’ and there were coaches and trainers and stuff there,” said Ortega, who split time between the Mets’ low and high Single-A affiliates last year. “And I’m like, ‘I can’t mess this up. It’s going to look bad.’ I should have thought of this. I mean what if (former All-Star Yoenis) Cespedes turns on one.”
As it turned out, Ortega had nothing to worry about. Armed with his high school infielder’s glove, which hadn’t seen much use the past five years, he showcased his smooth fielding and strong arm, fielding 10 ground balls in the four-inning game, including one that he backhanded deep in the hole and threw out a runner at first base.
The performance was so impressive, that one of Ortega’s roommates heard DeGrom asking, “who’s this Ortega guy? Because he was making plays yesterday,” in the locker room the next day.
“And I didn’t believe him at first,” Ortega said. “I figured he was just messing with me. But then I heard from a couple more people over the next couple days that confirmed it. So I was fired up that (deGrom) knows me.”