It appears that Jose Ortiz’s career with the Barnstormers is over, so before he fades away into the revolving door that is independent league baseball, let’s take a look at his time in Lancaster. 
There has always been something compelling about Ortiz’s story. He was the first former big-time prospect to sign with the Barnstormers prior to their inaugural season. He was ranked among Baseball America’s Top 50 prospects in 2001 (eight spots ahead of Albert Pujols) and was once the Pacific Coast League’s most valuable player. He was expected to be a major league regular for many years.
What went wrong?
For starters, injuries. They conspired to ruin Ortiz’s only shot in the big leagues. In 2001, he put together a strong debut. He smashed 13 homers in 53 games for the Colorado Rockies. But a nagging hamstring problem robbed Ortiz of his power the following year. In 2002, he hit one home run in 192 at-bats. He was released by the Rockies at the end of that season and he hasn’t played affiliated ball since.
Instead of searching around for a minor-league deal in the United States, Ortiz took a big-money offer from the Orix BlueWave (Ichiro’s team) in Japan. Ortiz put up the following numbers in his two seasons there …
- 2003: .255/.311/.536 with 33 homers and 86 RBIs in 127 games.
- 2004: .289/.349/.499 with 24 homers and 71 RBIs in 128 games.
It’s a mystery as to why Ortiz couldn’t get a spring training invitation after playing that well overseas. He didn’t sulk about it. He came to the Barnstormers and tore apart the Atlantic League for the first month of the 2005 season. Ortiz was batting .343 with 25 RBIs in 26 games when he suffered a torn biceps tendon that ended his season in late May.
Again, it was injuries. At the time of this setback, rumors were swirling that Ortiz was about to get picked up. The Cleveland Indians were showing strong interest and they had a potential vacancy in the big leagues at third base. Ortiz never got that deal and, as it turned out, never got another chance.
As we posted here earlier in the winter, Ortiz will play in Mexico this season. He’ll turn 30 in June and has never been farther off the major league radar. Instead of becoming the first Barnstormer to make The Show, he became another example of the fragility of this game. Where would Ortiz be if he stayed healthy his entire career? No one can say for sure. But he almost certainly wouldn’t be playing in the Mexican League.
