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Ramon Ortiz (1973)

Right-hander Ramon Diogenes Ortiz was a member of the Minnesota Twins for about four and a half months in 2007. A native of Cotui in the Dominican Republic, Ortiz was signed by the Angels as a free agent in 1995. He generally pitched well in the minors, although he appears to have been slowed by an injury in 1998. He reached AAA in 1999 and after only nine starts there was promoted to the majors in August. He was immediately thrown into the rotation, but he wasn’t ready, going 2-3, 6.52. He split the next year between AAA and the majors, but by 2001 he was in the big leagues to stay. He was in the Angels starting rotation for three full years, from 2001-2003. His best year was clearly 2002, when he went 15-9, 3.77 with a WHIP of 1.18. His ERA soared to 5.2 the next year, and when he got off to a poor start in 2004 Ortiz was sent to the bullpen. The Angels traded him to the Reds for 2005, but while he stayed in the rotation he really did not pitch any better than he had the year before. A free agent after the season, he signed with Washington for 2006 and again spent the entire year in the rotation despite pitching poorly. He signed with Minnesota as a free agent for 2007. He was again in the rotation and pitched well in his first three starts, but slipped to average for his next two and bad for his next five. Ortiz went to the bullpen after that and was traded to Colorado in mid-August for Matt Macri. As a Twin, he was 4-4, 5.14 in 28 appearances, ten of the starts. He pitched 91 innings for Minnesota. Ortiz became a free agent after the 2007 season and played in Japan for the Orix Blue Wave in 2008, where he continued to not pitch very well. He came back to the United States for 2009, pitching at AAA Phoenix in the Giants’ organization. He signed with the Dodgers for 2010 and made sixteen appearances in the majors, most of them poor ones. The Dodgers released him in early June, he was in the Mets’ organization for about a month and a half, and he finished the season at AAA with Tampa Bay. He was released by the Rays in March of 2011, but signed with the Cubs a month later and battled his way back to the big leagues, spending half the season in Chicago. A free agent again after the season, he signed with San Francisco for 2012. He was released near the end of spring training, but signed with the Yankees and spent the season with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he had a fine season in AAA but did not get another shot at the majors. Once again a free agent after the season, he signed with Toronto for 2013. He started this season in AAA but made it back to the majors and is currently in the Blue Jays’ rotation. He’s 40 years old today and hasn’t had a good major league season since 2004 (and even that season was really nothing to shout about), but somehow he keeps getting chances. One has to assume that the Ramon Ortiz story is not done quite yet.