Joey Ortiz is an elite defensive prospect who can play anywhere in the infield. Over the last year he has progressed as a hitter and gone from a glove first guy who’s offense was a bonus to an elite hitter in the minor leagues. This progress propelled him through the minors in the last year until he made his Major League Debut earlier this year.
The way his debut was handled makes me question how the Orioles feel about his future with the team. He was brought up without much of the fanfare that accompanied the Orioles other top prospects. I thought it was interesting that Ortiz was brought up to fill in for an injured Urias before Westburg considering Westburg was the higher ranked prospect and was just as ready and deserving. Ortiz did not get consistent at bats during his stint in the Majors and since Westburg was brought up he has been consistently in the lineup leading me to conclude that they didn’t want to bring Westburg up until they felt like they could play him almost everyday and they did not have that same concern for Ortiz.
It is hard to evaluate Ortiz’s Major League performance since he never was able to get into a groove at the plate and got sent down with only 33 ABs but his defense was as good as advertised and he has been very good at the plate in triple A.
In an earlier post I talked about how I believe one of Mateo, Urias or Frazier will end up being moved to make room for Mountcastle (or rather the bullpen arm that comes up after the break). If the Orioles want to see more of Ortiz before rosters expand without sending down one of the young guys they’ll have to move another one of the veteran infielders.
For me the ideal infield for the second half would be Westburg at second, Gunnar at Short and Ortiz and Urias taking turns at third or wherever the lineup calls for them to be. This would obviously require moving on from Adam Frazier who the Orioles paid 8 Million this year and will be a free agent at the end of the season.
Frazier has been pretty good for the O’s this year, he has tied his career high for homeruns in a season already, has come up big in the clutch several times and surprisingly is among the team leaders in RBI. He can also flex to the outfield if needed. The downside is that his defense has been subpar and his batting average has hovered around .230 for most of the season. With Cowser coming up, his ability to play the outfield is not especially valuable to the Orioles at this point. On top of that he will likely walk at the end of the year so the Orioles might as well get something back for him if they can.
Another potential outcome and perhaps the most likely is that Joey Ortiz is a part of whatever trade package the Orioles send out to bring in a high end starting pitcher. Ortiz is a consensus top 100 prospect and the same tools that would make him a valuable addition to the Orioles roster make him an attractive trade target for teams looking to move on from veteran pitching and get an almost major league ready talent in return.
The Orioles trading Ortiz makes sense if they believe their starting infield of the future is Jackson Holiday, Gunner Henderson and Jordan Westburg making Ortiz the odd man out whose value is at its highest point.
The Orioles could also just wait and add Ortiz when rosters expand and have him as a defensive specialist and depth piece in the playoffs and then have him take over an infield position at the start of next season although he’ll have to compete with more upcoming Orioles infield prospects Connor Norby, Coby Mayo and Jackson Holliday.
Promote, trade or wait by the end of the year we will have a better idea of what the Orioles think of Joey Ortiz.
The Dishwasher 
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