José Daniel Ortiz Santos (born June 13, 1977) is a former professional baseball player. He played in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

(MLB) for the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

and

Colorado Rockies The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Fie ...

and in

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

(NPB) for the

Orix Buffaloes The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefectur ...

Chiba Lotte Marines The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. History The Marines franchise began in 1950 as the Mainichi Orions, an inaugural ...

Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks The are a Japanese professional baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. They compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League. The team was formerly known as the Nankai Hawks and was based in Osaka. ...

, and

Saitama Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, wh ...

Career

Early career and MLB debut

Ortiz was originally signed by the

as an amateur free agent in . After spending several seasons in the minors, he had a breakout season in , winning the

Pacific Coast League Most Valuable Player Award The Pacific Coast League Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) is an annual award given to the best player in Minor League Baseball's Pacific Coast League based on their regular-season performance as voted on by league managers. From 1932 to 1947, the ...

while playing for the A's Triple-A farm club, the

Sacramento River Cats The Sacramento River Cats are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and are the Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. Prior to 2015, the River Cats were the Triple-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics for 15 yea ...

. That earned him a September call-up to the majors, where he played in seven games for Oakland.

2001: Becoming a major league regular

Before the 2001 season, ''

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

'' ranked him the best prospect in Oakland's farm system and the 34th-best prospect in baseball. Ortiz started the year in Oakland, but was returned to the minor leagues two weeks later after batting .179 in his first 11 games. After a second brief call-up in May Ortiz was traded to the

on July 25 as part of a package that brought

Jermaine Dye Jermaine Trevell Dye (born January 28, 1974) is an American former professional baseball right fielder. Dye grew up in Northern California and was a multi-sport star at Will C. Wood High School in Vacaville. Dye attended Cosumnes River College in ...

to Oakland. Ortiz was installed as the Rockies starting second baseman, replacing

Todd Walker Todd Arthur Walker (born May 25, 1973) is a former professional baseball infielder who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1996 to 2007. Listed at and , he batted left-handed and threw right-handed. Walker played college baseball at Louis ...

(who had been traded to the

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

). Ortiz batted .255 the rest of the way, with 13 home runs in just 204

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

s in 53 games.

2002: Sophomore slump?

Ortiz opened the season as the Rockies' starter at second again, but his power numbers declined substantially. By mid-June, while he was hitting .244, Ortiz had just one home run through the same number of games (53) in which he'd hit 13 home runs the year before. Ortiz was sent down to the Triple-A

Colorado Springs Sky Sox The Colorado Springs Sky Sox were a Minor League Baseball team in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The team played in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and was the Triple-A affiliate of the major league Milwaukee Brewers (2015–2018), Colorado Rockie ...

and was replaced at second by Brent Butler. After hitting .333 with 6 home runs in 26 minor league games, Ortiz was brought back up in September. He hit .281 in 12 games down the stretch, but failed to hit a home run the rest of the year.

Off to Japan

Ortiz was not offered a contract by the Rockies after the season, and rather than catch on with another major league club, Ortiz signed with the

Orix BlueWave , styled as ORIX, is a Japanese diversified financial services group headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, and Osaka, Japan. ORIX offers leasing, lending, rentals, life insurance, real estate financing and development, venture capital, investment an ...

of the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Pacific League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently consis ...

. On March 28, , Ortiz hit a home run in his first at bat in Japan, and on May 3 he

hit for the cycle In baseball, hitting for the cycle is the accomplishment of one batter who hits a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in the same game. Collecting the hits in that order is known as a "natural cycle". Cycles are rare in Major League Ba ...

against the

Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, wh ...

. He finished 2003 with 33 home runs for the BlueWave, batting .255 and driving in 86 runs in 127 games. Ortiz returned to the BlueWave for , and he increased his batting average to .289. However, his power totals declined, as he dropped to 24 home runs in 128 games. After the season, the BlueWave merged with the

Kintetsu Buffaloes The were a Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team based in Osaka, Japan, which was in the Pacific League. In 2005 the team was merged with the Orix BlueWave to become the team now known as the Orix Buffaloes. The team played in Fujiidera Stad ...

to become the

, and Ortiz was not retained for by the new team.

Independent ball and back to Japan

Without a team in Japan or the majors, Ortiz signed with the

Lancaster Barnstormers The Lancaster Barnstormers (colloquially known as the Stormers) are an American professional baseball team based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They are a member of the North Division of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, a "partner league ...

of the

Atlantic League of Professional Baseball The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB) is a professional independent baseball league based in the United States. It is an official MLB Partner League based in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. The Atlantic League's ...

. He played two seasons with Lancaster in and . In , Ortiz returned to Japan with the

, where he batted .309 with 7 home runs in 67 games. He returned to the Marines in , batting .288 with 11 home runs in 100 games. His contract was not renewed by the Marines, and so he started the season as a free agent. In May, the

came calling, needing a power bat in the lineup to protect aging left-handed slugger

Nobuhiko Matsunaka is a former left fielder and designated hitter for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He played in the 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics as well as the 2006 World Baseball Classic, hitting cleanup in and . Early life and amateur career Mats ...

References

External links

Japanese baseball statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ortiz, Jose 1977 births Living people Acereros de Monclova players Arizona League Athletics players Chiba Lotte Marines players Colorado Rockies players Colorado Springs Sky Sox players Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in Canada Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in Japan Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in Mexico Dominican Republic expatriate baseball players in the United States Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks players Huntsville Stars players Lancaster Barnstormers players Major League Baseball players from the Dominican Republic Major League Baseball second basemen Mexican League baseball right fielders Mexican League baseball second basemen Mexican League baseball third basemen Modesto A's players Nippon Professional Baseball infielders Oakland Athletics players Orix BlueWave players Pacific Coast League MVP award winners Sacramento River Cats players Saitama Seibu Lions players Saraperos de Saltillo players Vancouver Canadians players