Hector Ortiz, who spent the past 18 years as a manager and coach in the Texas Rangers organization, died Wednesday after a long battle with cancer. He was 54.
The Rangers said Ortiz died at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, not far from the club’s spring training home in the suburb of Surprise.
Ortiz was a coach on the minor league player development staff the past three years after serving on the major league staff under two previous managers, Jeff Banister and Chris Woodward.
Ortiz spent four seasons as the first base coach and one each as a bullpen coach and catching coordinator. He also managed and coached in the Rangers’ minor league system and was a manager for several years in the Puerto Rican Winter League.
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The former catcher played 18 professional seasons from 1988-2005, appearing in 93 major league games with Kansas City and seven with the Rangers. Ortiz was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1988.
Ortiz’s three-year cancer battle inspired Rangers coach Bobby Wilson to design a blue hoodie with a Texas-inspired catcher’s mask and “Hector Strong” on the sleeve. Proceeds from sales have supported families dealing with cancer.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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Shohei Ohtani is unique in Major League Baseball history, a two-way Japanese superstar who can excel as a hitter and a pitcher, sometimes in the same game.
But for the 2024 season, Ohtani will be just a hitter.
That’s because Ohtani is recovering from an injured elbow ligament — the ulnar collateral ligament — that often leads to a procedure colloquially known as Tommy John surgery. Ohtani has been vague about the exact procedure he had last September, but the Dodgers do not expect him to pitch until 2025.
Typically, pitchers who have Tommy John surgery miss at least a full calendar year. Most of that time is spent carefully rehabbing the elbow, so it can withstand the unusual torque needed to throw a baseball 90-plus mph.
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Hitters — including Philadelphia Phillies star Bryce Harper — also occasionally tear their UCLs and require Tommy John surgery, but their recovery is much quicker.
Ohtani, who signed a record $700 million, 10-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers in December, could still have a huge impact in the batters’ box this year.
HOW DID OHTANI GET HURT?
Ohtani — who spent his first six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels — left the pitcher’s mound abruptly in the second inning of his start against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 23 after throwing 26 pitches. Later that night, Angels general manager Perry Minasian confirmed that Ohtani had an injured elbow ligament and wouldn’t pitch again in 2023.
The two-time Most Valuable Player is no stranger to serious arm injuries. He had his first Tommy John surgery in 2018, following his stellar rookie season. That kept him from pitching in 2019 and most of 2020 before he returned full-time to the mound in 2021.
There have only been a handful of MLB players who have had Tommy John surgery twice and returned as effective pitchers.
WHAT CAN OHTANI DO THIS SEASON?
If his first spring training game is any indication, Ohtani’s hitting won’t be hampered by his recovery.
Ohtani smacked a two-run homer in his third exhibition at-bat on Tuesday as the team’s designated hitter.
A torn ulnar collateral ligament is a serious injury for a pitcher or fielder because it affects throwing a baseball, but it’s not quite as problematic for hitters.
Throwing a baseball puts particular stress on the UCL as the arm rapidly pivots from being externally rotated to internally rotated. That’s not a concern during the baseball swing — especially for players like Ohtani and Harper, who throw right-handed but bat left-handed. Their injured right arms lead the way when they swing, a less taxing motion for the elbow ligament.
Last season, Harper returned to the lineup as the designated hitter a little more than five months after Tommy John surgery, wearing a brace on his right elbow. Ohtani is roughly five months removed from the elbow surgery he had in September.
Shohei Ohtani smacks FIRST homer as a Dodger in spring training game vs. White Sox
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WHY DID THE DODGERS STILL GIVE HIM $700 MILLION?
The Dodgers — and all other 29 MLB teams — knew about Ohtani’s elbow injury during his free agency. That didn’t stop Los Angeles from spending $700 million to add him to the roster.
Among the reasons: Ohtani should still be able to pitch again starting in 2025, theoretically giving the Dodgers a two-way player for nine of his 10 seasons under contract. But even if he can’t always pitch, his bat is among the game’s best. He had a .304 batting average, 44 home runs, 95 RBIs and 20 stolen bases in 2023, which helped him land his second MVP award.
If Ohtani eventually has to quit pitching, he’s athletic enough to play first base or even the outfield.
Ohtani is also unique in that he’s a global phenomenon — with legions of fans around the world, particularly in his native Japan. His marketability rivals some of the world’s biggest sports stars, including soccer standouts Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, along with NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
All those eyeballs on Ohtani mean lots of advertising and merchandise dollars for the Dodgers.
Max Scherzer logged at least 179 innings in 10 of his first 16 years in the majors. And the three-time Cy Young Award winner learned some tough lessons on the road to pitching deep into games.
That’s one reason why the Texas Rangers right-hander thinks Major League Baseball needs to look a lot deeper than a roster limit if it wants to return starting pitching to prominence.
“I became a better pitcher once I went through three times in the lineup and was failing on that third time through the lineup,” the 39-year-old Scherzer said. “That’s every young pitcher’s struggle, is learning how to pitch three times through a lineup. … We’re so scared now to let guys fail.”
The state of starting pitching has the attention of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who said in October the league is considering lowering the maximum of 13 pitchers per team to 12, possibly as soon as the 2025 season — with the goal of placing a greater emphasis on starting pitchers.
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Big league starters averaged 15.4 outs and 85.1 pitches last year, according to Sportradar, and 15.6 outs and 84.9 pitches in 2022. But the numbers were 17.4 and 93.1 as late as 2015, and 17.8 and 98.6 in 2000.
“I grew up a fan of the game, and me and my dad used to pick Astros games based on when Roy Oswalt was pitching,” Chicago Cubs right-hander Jameson Taillon said. “We would look at pitching matchups, that’s what we would do. Nowadays, I feel like that allure is gone a little bit.”
MLB wants to put that allure back in the game, but it’s a tricky, multifaceted issue.
Pitching prospects are closely monitored on their way to the majors, and deviating from the organization’s plan could put the careers of minor league managers and coaches at risk. There is more arm talent in big league bullpens than ever before, and reams of data that illustrate the danger of leaving a pitcher in for too long.
“From a fan perspective, yeah, to see a guy in there to go seven, eight innings, I absolutely get it,” Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Doesn’t necessarily help you win baseball games, and I’m in the business of winning games.”
While a 12-pitcher limit could incentivize teams to let starting pitchers go deeper into games, it would add more stress to bullpens. It also could prompt teams to shuttle their middle relievers from the majors to the minor leagues even more — regardless of their performance.
The long-term answer most likely lies in the lower levels of the minors and how baseball develops its next generation of starters.
“It starts with training in the minor leagues,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “That’s where it all begins. It’s hard to do it when guys are coming up. They’re not trained to do that. Now you’re going to ask them to get you deeper in the games, and now you’re risking injury. So you got to be smart about that.”
The focus in the minors is more on stuff, Taillon said, and trying “to raise guys’ ceiling at a young age.”
“You see guys nowadays get called up who’ve never thrown five innings in their life,” he said. “It’s crazy.”
Pitch counts, especially for baseball’s top prospects, prevent pitchers from working deep into games in the minors.
Scherzer, who threw at least 95 pitches in 15 starts last year, thinks more latitude in the minors would help.
“I’ve been developed to throw, call it 105, 110 pitches on a five-day rotation,” he said. “It’s the rest. It’s more about the pitch count and then getting the appropriate amount of the rest. I don’t understand why we keep cutting that pitch count lower and lower, especially for the guys who are being developed.”
Scherzer called a 12-pitcher roster limit “a terrible idea,” but he agreed that it would take some sort of action to reverse the current trend with starting pitching.
“We need to incentivize keeping the starter in the game longer,” he said. “We’re going to have to come up with rules to do this. It’s not going to self-correct.”
Once pitchers make it to the majors, they are often pulled before the lineup turns over a third time because of statistics that show hitters typically have more success in their third plate appearance against the same pitcher.
It could be an ace right-hander rolling along with a low pitch count — with no sign of trouble — and the manager makes the move because it’s easier to address why he took him out than why he left him in for too long. That’s an attitude that would be difficult for Major League Baseball to take out of the game.
“Trusting what you’re seeing, trusting your eyes and knowing when those times are to be able to let them go, I think you might start to see that come back a little bit more,” Cubs pitching coach Tommy Hottovy said. “There’s no refuting the numbers. It’s just like being able to recognize when it’s time to let them let them go.”
The 2024 MLB season starts in less than one month, which means it’s time for MLB bettors to start looking at season-long futures bets, such as betting over or under win totals for every team.
I went through every team’s win totals as currently listed on FanDuel Sportsbook and picked five teams I’m most confident will go over their respective totals (I’ll identify five unders next week).
Before we begin, let me make one thing very clear: Win totals are not just about how good a team is. They are also about the strength of the division each team plays in. Consider the lines for the Los Angeles Dodgers (103.5) and the Texas Rangers (89.5).
While the Dodgers have assembled a superteam, led by the addition of Shohei Ohtani this winter, I do not believe they are a full 14 wins better than the defending World Series champions. But L.A. plays in a weaker division, while Texas has to deal with the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners in the American League West.
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With that said, here are the five teams I have the most confidence in exceeding their win totals in 2024.
Bringing Bellinger back was a necessity for the Cubs to have a shot at making the playoffs, and they got it done. As far as the lineup, I like it a bit more. I think Busch could be a difference-maker. I think Pete Crow-Armstrong has the ability to compete for Rookie of the Year. He adds a huge dynamic to that outfield; if he’s playing center field, he’s one of the best center fielders in baseball.
The Cubs have a sneaky good backend of the bullpen. Adbert Alzolay and Neris can be a dominant duo. While the rotation is adequate, I like Justin Steele a lot. Jameson Taillon and Imanaga are question marks for me. All in all, I really do think this club is better than it was last year.
Will the Dodgers & Cubs hit the over on their 2024 win totals?
The Dodgers are going to be, by far, the best regular-season team in baseball. They should also finish with the most wins in the National League by a healthy margin because of how competitive the NL East is coupled with how many NL West wins are out there for the Dodgers.
Hernández is the sneakiest, most underrated addition to this team. He’s really, really good, and no one’s talking about how well he’s going to slot into the lineup and outfield because of the $1 billion the Dodgers paid to Ohtani and Yamamoto. You add Glasnow to that rotation, you get Walker Buehler back at some point this year, and now you have a rotation that is not only great but deep.
Then you consider the offensive firepower that already existed before adding Ohtani and Hernández. Gavin Lux, who got hurt in spring training last season, is also back. I think this is going to be one of the best lineups that we’ve ever seen.
The Yankees got a lot better. They’re going to have a good rotation after dealing with so many injuries last year. Carlos Rodón was sidelined a massive chunk of the year, and when he did come back, he didn’t look right. But he’s coming into the year healthy. You still have Gerrit Cole and you add Stroman to the staff. Offensively, you have Soto and Aaron Judge hitting back-to-back.
I think the Yanks should be a World Series favorite. They need to be healthy, but so do many teams around the league. I think we’re underrating the Yankees in the public eye.
The Reds will absolutely be better. They easily have the top starting rotation in the NL Central. You have Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Graham Ashcraft, Martinez and Montas, who is a good addition. Then there’s this lineup full of these 20-something-year-old guys with so much talent. I believe Elly De La Cruz will improve and have a strong first full season in the league. I think Christian Encarnacion-Strand is going to be really good. Cincinnati also added Candelario.
In my opinion, the St. Louis Cardinals have the best offense in the NL Central, but by the time September and October rolls around, we could be looking back and saying, “the best offense in the NL Central was the Cincinnati Reds’ because their young guys stepped up and took a massive step forward with that rotation.”
The Rangers really hit their stride in the playoffs. They found their confidence and how they want to play as a team. What they learned about themselves is invaluable, and they’re going to be really good again this year.
I think Adolis García’s career changed last October. More specifically, I think it was altered when he got hit against the Astros and went 0-for-4 with four punchouts that next game and then, in his fifth at-bat, hit a home run. From that point onward, he was the best player in the playoffs. Texas also gets a full season of Evan Carter, who is a star in the making.
Ben Verlander is an MLB Analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the “Flippin’ Bats” podcast. Born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, Verlander was an All-American at Old Dominion University before he joined his brother, Justin, in Detroit as a 14th-round pick of the Tigers in 2013. He spent five years in the Tigers organization. Follow him on Twitter @BenVerlander.
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Judge set the Yankees’ single season mark with 62 home runs in 2022, breaking the team record set by Roger Maris in 1961. He missed 42 games last season with a toe injury.
Olson led the majors with 54 homers last season, breaking Andruw Jones’ team record of 51 (2005).
Shohei Ohtani, who led the American League in homers last season with 44 while playing with the Los Angeles Angels, signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the most lucrative free-agent signing in history (10 years, $700 million).
Ohtani will not pitch this season after suffering an ulnar collateral ligament tear in his right elbow in August.
But that injury will not affect Ohtani swinging the bat, as we quickly learned on Tuesday.
Shohei Ohtani smacks first homer as a Dodger in spring training game vs. White Sox
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Here are the latest home run leader odds for the upcoming season at FanDuel Sportsbook.
Reigning 2023 hits leader and National League MVP Ronald Acuna Jr. sits at the top of the preseason hits leader odds list.
Acuna is coming off a historic 2023 season in which he was unanimously named NL MVP after he became the first player in MLB history to record 40-plus home runs and 70-plus stolen bases in the same season.
Including the 40-70 season, Acuna also led the MLB in hits (217), runs (149), stolen bases (73), on-base percentage (.416) and OPS (1.012), which earned him the top spot on MLB Network’s top 100 list heading into the season.
Miami Marlins second baseman Luis Arraez follows Acuna in the odds after his standout season in 2023.
For the second consecutive year, Arraez was named one of MLB’s batting champions with a batting average of .354 and 203 hits to his name.
The Japanese star hit a two-run homer in his first game wearing Dodger blue on Tuesday, working a full count in the fifth inning before an opposite-field shot off Dominic Leone that just cleared the left-field wall.
“Definitely felt good at the plate, felt better each time,” Ohtani said through a translator. “We’re trending in the right direction.”
Ohtani was hitless in his first two plate appearances, striking out on four pitches in the first inning and hitting a hard grounder into a double play in the third.
The two-time Most Valuable Player received a standing ovation before his first at-bat at Camelback Ranch, where dozens of fans wore his No. 17 jersey and cheered his every move. The Dodgers — already one of MLB’s premier franchises — have become even more popular after spending more than $1 billion to sign Ohtani and fellow Japanese Yoshibonu Yamamato.
“With Shohei — I’m starting to learn really quickly — he’s built differently,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He took some really good swings.”
Yamamoto is expected to make his spring training debut on Wednesday.
Ohtani’s first full swing on Tuesday wasn’t exactly one of the memories. He missed the ball, his helmet tumbled off his head and it took a few seconds to gather himself before returning to the batter’s box.
But he corrected that momentary awkwardness in a hurry, showing the power that’s helped him hit 124 homers over the past three seasons. The crowd roared when Ohtani connected and the cheers grew louder as the ball slowly drifted over the left-field wall.
“I thought I hit it a little too high, but maybe the Arizona weather factored in a little,” Ohtani said.
Ohtani was in the second spot of the lineup against the Chicago White Sox, sandwiched between leadoff hitter Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.
Roberts said all three stars were receptive to the Betts-Ohtani-Freeman lineup construction. The manager added that having Ohtani at the No. 2 spot wasn’t “set in stone,” but it’s something he wants to try for a while during spring training.
“I feel that having Shohei hitting in front of Freddie gives Shohei a lot of protection,” Roberts said.
It was Ohtani’s first spring training game since signing a record $700 million, 10-year contract — and first since right elbow surgery in September that will keep the two-time MVP from pitching this year. He was the designated hitter, a role he’s expected to fill all season.
The 29-year-old is further along in his recovery than Los Angeles said it anticipated, and the team hopes he will be available when the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres play a two-game series in Seoul, South Korea, on March 20 and 21 to start the regular season.
“Most importantly is his health,” Roberts told reporters this week. “So if it lines up, great. And if it doesn’t, then we’ll still move on from there.”
NOTES: Right-hander Walker Buehler faced batters during his throwing session on Tuesday. The two-time All-Star missed the 2023 season after his second Tommy John surgery in August 2022.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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Toronto Blue Jays reliever Erik Swanson has left the team to be with his family after his son, Toby, was hit by a car Sunday.
Manager John Schneider said Toby was airlifted to a hospital, and he is “on the road to recovery.” Schneider also praised the first responders in Clearwater for their “incredible work.”
“Erik will be away from the team for a while, family comes first,” Schneider said Tuesday. “Our love, support, and prayers are with … the entire Swanson family.”
Swanson is going into his second season with Toronto and his sixth year in the majors overall. The 6-foot-3 right-hander is 8-14 with 10 saves and a 3.78 ERA in 195 games.
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Reporting by The Associated Press.
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It’ll be the two-way star’s first game action since signing a record $700 million, 10-year contract during the offseason — and since right elbow surgery in September that will keep the two-time MVP from pitching this year. He’ll be the designated hitter, a role he’s expected to fill all season.
Ohtani has looked sharp in practice this spring and took live batting practice on Sunday. Manager Dave Roberts has said Ohtani will dictate how many at-bats he gets Tuesday, but he expected him to come up two or three times.
The 29-year-old Ohtani is further along in his recovery than Los Angeles anticipated, and the team hopes he will be available when the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres play a two-game series in Seoul, South Korea, on March 20 and 21 to start the regular season.
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“Most importantly is his health,” Roberts told reporters this week. “So if it lines up, great. And if it doesn’t, then we’ll still move on from there.”
