The White Sox signed Rafael Ortega to a minor league contract last week, as reflected on the MLB.com transaction log and the outfielder’s Instagram page. It’s likely he’ll be in MLB camp as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training.
Ortega is looking to get back to the majors for a fourth straight season and an eighth campaign overall. The left-handed hitter has appeared for six different teams. The only time he spanned multiple seasons with the same club came on the other side of Chicago. Ortega was a Cub between 2021-22, operating as their starting center fielder and leadoff hitter for a time.
Those years on the North Side have been Ortega’s most productive to date. He combined for a solid .265/.344/.408 batting line in just over 700 plate appearances. That made it moderately surprising both that the Cubs non-tendered him last offseason and that he was forced to settle for a minor league deal with the Yankees.
Ortega didn’t secure an outfield spot in the Bronx, kicking off a nomadic 2023. He was granted his release from the Yankees. A minor league pact with the Rangers also didn’t get Ortega back to the majors. He signed another non-roster pact, this time with the Mets, in mid-June. After New York fell out of contention and traded Mark Canha and Tommy Pham at the deadline, they brought Ortega to the majors.
He didn’t hit at the level he had with the Cubs. Ortega reached base at a solid .341 clip but only hit one home run over 136 plate appearances. His .213/.341/.272 slash was well below average. New York outrighted him off the 40-man roster at the end of the year, the equivalent of an early non-tender.
For the second straight spring, Ortega will try to secure a roster spot in Spring Training. The 32-year-old can play all three outfield spots but is a better fit in a corner than in center field. Chicago has Luis Robert Jr. locked into center and Andrew Benintendi set for a bounceback opportunity in left. Right field, where the Sox got a .219/.271/.344 showing last year, is wide open. As thing stand, Óscar Colás and Gavin Sheets project to split time.
General manager Chris Getz acknowledged on Tuesday the front office could add a more established option. Ortega shouldn’t stand in the way of that pursuit. The transaction tracker indicates his deal was signed on January 5, even if it wasn’t officially logged until yesterday. Getz was surely aware Ortega was part of the organization before Tuesday’s comments about a potential right field acquisition. Brett Phillips, Wynton Bernard and Mark Payton are also in the organization as non-roster players.
Getz pls sign Adam Duvall, Joey Gallo, long shot for Bellinger.
I heard Reinsdorf is writing the check for Belli, as we speak. Jerry just can’t figure out, how to make that many zeros.
Which Getz are you referring to, because the one named Chris isn’t going to sign an established anybody.
Chris Getz.
Maybe he was talking about Bernie.
If he prevents Gavin Sheets from playing the OF then the team has improved some.
Maybe he could be a 1b/dh bench guy instead. Chris has been making solid depth moves.
Getz pls sign a decent FA that can hit good and play good defense pls:).
That’s not Gallo. Duvall maybe
They could use a leadoff hitter. Sounds like they just added their RF in Ortega. Take the .341 OBA and his good defense and be happy.
As a Sox fan, do such players exist or are they mythical unicorns?
Damn, wanted the padres to sign him.
Just keep Colas in the minors until the weather warms up. Last April destroyed his confidence.
Didn’t do much for his ability, either.
Hahaha…. Hahaha… I see what you did there!!!!
Dumpster Diving Getz
This is a solid depth move. I’m not sure why he didn’t get more attention last offseason. He was viable starter for the Cubs and he would have been an All-Star if he had played every game against the Cardinals. I’m glad he’s in the AL now. The White Sox have plenty of room to take a chance on him.
The reason is because his production with us was inflated. There wasn’t a book on him, and he played the second half of 2021, meaning there wasn’t enough time to develop a scouting report for other teams.
By the time the trade deadline in 22 arrived, he nose dived. I loved his energy, his tenacity, but the reality is, he is nothing more than AAA guy who can bench for a short time if you have too many injuries.
Thanks for the insight. I don’t know much about him, so this is helpful.
Getz piecing together a dynasty.
Agreed! ….Now all we need is the coffee czar Juan Ortega and it’s a lock
Ortega is definitely good enough to be a number 5 (backup) outfielder at the MLB level. Maybe even a number 4 on a couple of teams. Hope he makes a roster either with the White Sox or elsewhere.
Think Oscar will figure it out, the way things clicked for Louis after an uneventful start. Not a bad pickup though as a depth option, especially a guy who can patrol Center in a pinch. Like this move along with Brett Phillips the airplane- one of the funniest recent moments was when Phillips got grazed by a Jorge Lopez change-up and then fooled the umpire by pretending he was going to charge the mound before having to reassure him, “whoa, I’m totally joshing, Jorge’s my boy!!”
If Ortega is running out of the dugout to take his position in the outfield this year for the CWS..back to back 100 loss seasons are coming.
Rf depth is already thin ice.
Correct. Any organization that signs Ortega is either in a rebuild or tailspin.
I really thought the White Sox were in a rebuild year. After this signing they proved my wrong shoving all in!
Great signing
If they were in a rebuild Cease AND Robert would of been gone. LRJ won’t get traded per Chris Getz. This tells me that they hope to compete by 2025/2026. AV,AB,CM,EQ,BR,LRJ lineup could be a decent lineup, better than 2024 that’s for sure.
So if they change 38 of the 40, you don’t consider that a rebuild? What impactful signing have they done to indicate they intend to compete? Cease will be gone, just a matter of when. What they decide to do with LRJ depends on how quickly the rebuild progresses.
Why would they rebuild again if the last one failed. I don’t think it makes sense since the last 2 failed. Retooling is a soft rebuild. Unlike 2016, the players have little value minus Cease and they won’t trade LRJ. LRJ could be in the next good Sox team and trading him would contradict their defense needs.
I don’t know how old you are Aiden, and if you can remember way back to 2017. That was the start of their last rebuild. Five year rebuild, made the in three thanks to Hahn and manager Rick Renteria. jr replaces Renteria with lar after that year. The rebuild worked. lar did not. That’s why the Sox are going through yet another rebuild. And do you remember just a few weeks ago that Getz said NO ONE is untouchable. That would include LRJ. You can thank Uncle jer for sabotaging his own team.
I saw the what Chris said, but I haven’t seen any other Sox players minus Cease gaining trade interest. I agree that they are doing a small rebuild not a full tear down. This isn’t the same situation as 2017. The god awful player development showed why it failed in the first place. Im not saying that the Sox will be a good team in 2024. Based on what I see, it seems like the FO is focusing on 2025/2026 rather than 2024.
They won’t trade him. Chris has time to build a new core with him. Maybe he’s part of the next good white Sox team.
Wait a minute!! This guy never played for the Royals???? Why did Getz sign him?
Idk man.
Sorry WS fans, this guy is not that good. I suffered through watching him play the second half for the Mets last year after they traded away Canha and Pham. He couldn’t hit a lick.. He’s AAA depth, nothing more. There’s a good reason they outrighted him of the roster right at the end of the season.
He should probably wear a disguise next year, that would give him 6 more months until the scouts catch up with him.
How bad has this offseason been for Sox fans? The team is now competing with the Yokohama BayStars for talent and losing. Can it get any worse? Sure can as TA7 remains unsigned and JR gushes that makeup sex is the best sex of all. Baby is still on the roster. He’s fine as a DH, but what happens when Dutch master painter Getz paints himself into a corner when all the subpar RF options he has fail, and Baby becomes your everyday RFer? 100 losses in’24 is a no-brainer, but what’s the over/under for 50 wins?
Avoiding 100 losses isn’t a lock. I still predict 66-96 bc of improved defense. They replaced bad hitters with bad hitters. I just hope they have a positive clubhouse along with playing hard tbh.
Don’t agree with everything there, but I do like your comment about hoping for an improved clubhouse. There’s still a lot of talent on this team (yes & still some big holes too), overall better team play coming from an improved culture could help big.
But that doesn’t happen magically – someone’s gotta step up and be that positive force.
Baseball is an unpredictable sport, especially in a weak division like the AL Central where the division is wide open. I have no idea when the AL Central will be good again. I do agree the Sox have the worst odds of winning that division. We as fans don’t know what the FO is truly thinking. All we do is judge and criticize them.
What good is defense when you have no offense? Getz said he was “building” – excuse me – “retooling” the team with an emphasis on pitching, speed and defense. The pitching additions are atrocious. Cease is definitely gone, so just who is Maldonado going to help? A bunch of has-beens with lousy numbers wherever they played in ’23? No mention of offense. What good is having good defense when you don’t get anyone on base? Same with speed. You can’t steal a base if you’re not actually on base. And if these guys were that good on defense, other teams would have signed them by now. I guarantee you the Sox will lose more games this year than they did last season. And they won’t be contenders until sometime around when Ohtani starts picking up his deferred payments.
I’m not saying the Sox are contenders anytime soon under JR. Maybe Chris gets a better manager than Pedro. A worse roster than last season doesn’t always guarantee worse results. As mentioned before, avoiding 100 losses isn’t a lock. All I hope for 2024 is improved fundamental baseball.
Only way the Sox avoid 100+ losses is if the climate change crisis causes heaps of rainouts that results in games rescheduled for late in the year but are never played because the results are meaningless to the standings. The positive clubhouse might be an elusive dream. Remember Grifol last year claimed deaf, dumb and blind when reports became public of the team’s dysfunctional clubhouse. Which players emerge as leaders in the clubhouse? YoYo? Might be will he even be a Sox after this season? Junior? Nope. He is the prototypical athlete who plays for the name on the back of his jersey, no the front. MM? As long as the boys get past he was part of hem cheatin’ Astros, a team in my opinion that should have been stripped on the WS and suspended for a minimum of a year. Sox will be hot garbage in ’24. I only hope the fans stay away from the parkin droves as a protest of how horrible JR runs this team.
I never said the Sox will be a good team next year. Maybe the new coaching staff has a positive effect, we’ll see what happens once March 28th thru September 29th.
If 100+ losses is possible, does it really matter since they won’t be competing in 2024.
Unfortunately because of the contract with the city when this new stadium was built, JR is guaranteed to make money, again all from the city’ taxpayers.
I am a 78 year old White Sox fan of 60 years. The W. Sox never surprise me from year. They look for a winner with losers and someone else’s retreads. With players demanding millions for hardly earning half of it. But I guess you have pay that in a world of greed. Jerry can’t afford “super stars ” like the Dodgers Yankees and others
Sox fans aren’t complaining about superstars like LRJ. They are complaining because of Jerry and his thin budget.
Franklin, I disagree. ‘Jerry’ definitely can afford it. The White Sox organization is worth a billion and Jerry owns the Bulls also. ‘Jerry’ bought the White Sox for a song, back in the 1980s.
Honestly the way I see it, with all the help help the Sox have received over the years from the Illinois taxpayers – Jerry OWES it to the long suffering Sox fans who support the Sox, despite his constant ineptitude.
Honestly the older I get, I have come to feel sorry for my Sox friends.
Jerry is a bad owner, but nowhere near as bad as dollar bill wirtz. Is Jerry one of the worst owners in the MLB, yes. There are plenty of teams that have gof awful ownership like the Mariners, Angels, A’s, Pirates, Reds, Orioles, and Marlins to name a few.
He’s a billionaire. He can pay some.
They hired the wrong Getz. Leo was available. Franklin is correct about JR and signing washed up rejects. It worked once (2005) when the stars aligned and every player had a career year. Still shoulda hired Leo….
I wouldn’t mind Theo Epstein or Kim Ng as president of baseball operations or GM. But one outside candidate doesn’t turn around the white Sox FO.
Did he play for the royals at some point?
Nope.