Pittsburgh Pirates Prospects: Luis Ortiz Needs Moved To The Bullpen

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Pittsburgh Pirates’ hard-throwing pitching prospect Luis Ortiz has struggled, but could find a home as a relief pitcher in the bullpen.

One of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ hardest throwing pitching prospects is right-hander Luis Ortiz. Ortiz averages out in the mid-90s but can crank it up to 99 MPH. Ortiz jumped Greensboro and got directly thrown into the mix at Double-A Altoona. So far, his season could be better.

In 83 innings, Ortiz has a 4.77 ERA, 4.67 FIP, and 1.22 WHIP. Ortiz does have a solid 25.9% K-rate and 8.1% walk rate, but the righty has given up home runs at a 1.52-per-9 pace. Granted, there is some bad luck playing into Ortiz’s struggles. He has a 3.96 xFIP, which normalizes his HR/FB ratio. Currently, Ortiz’s 17.7% HR/FB rate is the seventeenth highest at the Double-A level. Last year, he had a much more reasonable 8.9% rate with A-Ball Bradenton. However, Ortiz should move to the bullpen.

Through the first two innings, Ortiz has a 2.43 ERA, 9.5 K/9 rate, and 2.4 BB/9 rate. Ortiz owns a 3.53 FIP in innings one and two. He’s allowed just four home runs, leading to an HR/9 of .97. Overall, Ortiz has some pretty good numbers when he only has to work the first two innings of a game, but after that, things go severely downhill.

After the second inning, Ortiz sees his ERA balloon to 7.30. Although the right-hander’s K/9 stays relatively constant at 9.3, his walks-per-9 jumps up by over one whole walk to 3.6. However, the biggest issue is that he serves up home runs like they’re going out of style. His HR/9 in the first two innings sits just below 1.0, but after the second inning, he gives up over two home runs every nine innings. To be exact, his HR/9 is 2.2 from the third inning onward.

The Pirates know that Ortiz lacks a third pitch. His mid-to-upper-90s fastball is among the best four-seamers in the Pirates’ system. His slider is a plus-plus mid-80s breaking ball. But his change-up? It’s currently at a 30-grade level with the projectability of a 40-grade pitch. Going into this year, anyone who evaluated Ortiz knew there is relief risk here.

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Ortiz is a similar prospect to Tahnaj Thomas. Thomas is another right-handed pitching prospect in the system with a big fastball and quality slider, but his change-up is rarely used and is a poor pitch. Like Ortiz, Thomas mowed down batters as a starter in the lower levels of the minor leagues, but his effectiveness waned as he was moved up the system.

This year, Thomas has gotten acclimated to a full-time bullpen role. Since the start of June, Thomas has thrown 20.2 innings of work with a 1.74 ERA, 2.32 FIP, and 1.02 WHIP. Thomas’ K% is approaching 30%, sitting at 29.6%. However, the more impressive numbers are his 4.9% walk rate and .44 HR/9.

Now there are cases of guys developing a third pitch. Take Mike Burrows, who has become one of the Pittsburgh Pirates top starting pitching prospests for example. He entered 2021 with massive questions as to whether or not he could remain in the rotation long-term. Fast forward to today, and his change-up is a quality third offering to go with his high-spin fastball and curveball. Now, he’s pushing top-100 prospect status. Ortiz also skipped an entire level of the minor leagues, going from A-Ball Bradenton to Double-A Altoona.

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But Burrows didn’t struggle to make it three innings at Double-A like Ortiz is. Burrows is trending in the right direction, while Ortiz is trending in the opposite direction. It’s clear that he has the ability to handle batters in the upper levels of the minor leagues, but not for an extended look. He excels in the first two innings but struggles after that. The Pirates need to give him the same treatment they gave Tahnaj Thomas and move Luis Ortiz to the bullpen. Not only would it benefit Ortiz’s performance to pitch only one or two innings at a time, but his fastball might see a slight uptick in speed.

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Pittsburgh Pirates’ hard-throwing pitching prospect Luis Ortiz has struggled, but could find a home as a relief pitcher in the bullpen.

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