2024 Chachi #24 Luis F. Ortiz

#56 / Luis Francisco Ortiz / Relief Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'3"  Weight:  230
Opening Day Age:  28

Born:  September 22, 1995, Sanger, CA
Acquired:  Selected off waivers from the San Francisco Giants, November 9, 2022

Major League Teams:  Baltimore Orioles 2018-19; San Francisco Giants 2022; Philadelphia Phillies 2023-24

2024 Philadelphia Phillies Photocards

Luis F. Ortiz pitched surprisingly well for the Phillies in 14 appearances in 2023, earning him a longer look in spring training in 2024.  Unfortunately for Ortiz, he sprained his ankle in the second game of the season on March 30th, and then felt forearm tightness while on a minor league rehab assignment in mid-June.  The Phillies moved him to the 60-day injured list shortly thereafter, and Ortiz's season, along with his Phillies career, was over.  In 15 games with the Phillies, he had no record and a 4.12 ERA in 19 2/3 innings pitched.  Ortiz recently signed a minor league deal with the Mets.

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  2014 Bowman Draft #DP26
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (1):  2019
Favorite/Only 2024 Card:  2024 Philadelphia Phillies Photocards
Total Cards in My Phillies Collection:  2 as of 12/21/24, 1 added in 2024

Complete Chachi Checklist

2023 Chachi #35

2024 Chachi #24

2024 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2024 Season Summary Index / 2024 Chachi Set Checklist

2024 Chachi #23 Yunior Marte / 2024 Chachi #25 Gregory Soto

2024-25 Offseason Begins - Early November Notes (Part 2)

2024 Topps Heritage #242

2024 Topps #571

2024 Choice Rocket City Trash Pandas #13

Once I started summarizing the player moves over the first week of the offseason, I realized I needed to break everything into two posts given the flurry of activity on Monday, November 4th.  (Part 1 of these Early November Notes can be found here.)

Devin Sweet (rhp) was acquired from the Detroit Tigers for cash considerations and added to the 40-man roster.  Sweet has pitched in seven big-league games, all in 2023, with the Mariners and Athletics.

John McMillon (rhp) was claimed off waivers from the Miami Marlins.  He's appeared in 14 games with the Royals and Marlins over the past two seasons, and was the winning pitcher in the Marlins game against the Phillies on September 7th.

Alan Rangel (rhp) who appeared in 10 games for the IronPigs in 2024, and who had pitched in seven seasons in the Braves' minor league system, was added to the 40-man roster.

Clearing space on the 40-man roster, the Phillies outrighted Yunior Marte (rhp), Luis F. Ortiz (rhp), Freddy Tarnok (rhp), Kolby Allard (lhp) and Rodolfo Castro (inf), with all clearing waivers and becoming free agents.  Marte relieved in 63 games for the Phillies over the past two seasons, and was 1-1 with a 5.79 ERA in 65 1/3 innings pitched.  Ortiz appeared in 15 games for the Phillies, with just one game this past season, and had a 4.12 ERA in 19 2/3 innings pitched.  He spent the bulk of 2024 on the injured list.

Tarnok never pitched for the Phillies.  Allard was a somewhat reliable emergency fifth starter for the club, going 2-0 with a 5.00 ERA, finding his most success in two starts in August.  Added to the NLDS roster, he didn't appear in any of the four games.  Like Ortiz, Castro was injured for a lot of 2024, and never got the call back to the majors.  In 14 games with the Phillies in 2023, he batted .100 (3 for 30).  Marte, Ortiz and Castro have their only Phillies cardboard appearances in the somewhat rare 2024 team-issued photo cards, shown below.

Game 160 - Phils Rally Late, But It's Not Enough

2023 Choice Lehigh
Valley IronPigs #27

Mets 4, Phillies 3 (Game 1)
Game 160 - Saturday Afternoon, September 30th in Flushing
Record - 89-71

One Sentence Summary:  Taijuan Walker struggled early and the Phillies' offense was mostly quiet until the late innings in this 4-3 loss.

What It Means:  The weather in New York necessitated a double header on Saturday as Friday's game was rained out.  The Phillies are still waiting to find out who they'll play in the Wild Card Series.

What Happened:  Walker allowed four runs in the first and second innings, and then settled in to throw five scoreless.  The Phillies had one hit through six innings - a fourth inning single from J.T. Realmuto.  In the eighth, Mets' starting pitcher Tylor Megill allowed a pair of singles to start the inning.  Edmundo Sosa was able to bring home the Phillies' first run with an RBI single.  In the ninth, Realmuto walked and was doubled home by Brandon Marsh.  Weston Wilson singled to bring home Marsh, making it 4-3 Mets, and then stole second and third base.  With Wilson, as the tying run, on third, Jake Cave struck out and Cristian Pache flew out to end the ballgame.

Featured Card:  Luis F. Ortiz pitched a clean ninth, striking out a pair.  He was up and down several times throughout the year, pitching in 14 games overall and owning a save and a 3.32 ERA in 19 innings pitched.  He'll likely never appear on a Phillies baseball card, but I have this card of his, from the IronPigs team set, in my collection.

Transaction:   In an effort to rest some pitching arms and plan a postseason roster, the Phillies made roster moves before and after this first game of the double header.  Dylan Covey (rhp) was placed on the 15-day injured list with low back pain and Rodolfo Castro (inf) was optioned to the spring training complex in Clearwater.  Ortiz (rhp) was recalled along with Wilson (inf).

2023 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2023 Season Summary Index / 2023 Chachi Set Checklist

2023 Chachi #35 Luis Ortiz

#56

Luis Francisco Ortiz
Relief Pitcher

Bats:  Right  Throws:  Right  Height:  6'3"  Weight:  230
Opening Day Age:  27

Born:  September 22, 1995, Sanger, CA
Acquired:  Selected off waivers from the San Francisco Giants, November 9, 2022

Contract Status:  Arbitration eligible 2026
Major League Teams:  Baltimore Orioles 2018-2019; San Francisco Giants 2022; Philadelphia Phillies 2023

As of this writing, Luis Ortiz has been on the Phillies' active roster for 29 games this year, making 10 appearances.  In 14 innings pitched, he's allowed 15 hits, six runs, five walks and struck out 12.  Ortiz shows up on the Phillies' official website as "Luis F. Ortiz" but everywhere else drops the middle initial so that's what I went with for his debut Chachi card.  Ortiz was last up as the 27th man for the double header against the Padres on July 15th, throwing an inning and allowing a run in Game 2.

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  2014 Bowman Draft #DP26
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (1):  2019
Newest Card Added to My Phillies Collection:  2023 Choice Lehigh Valley IronPigs #27
Total Cards in My Phillies Collection:  1 as of 7/21/23.

Complete Chachi Checklist

2023 Chachi #35

2023 Virtual Phillies Wall / 2023 Season Summary Index / 2023 Chachi Set Checklist

2023 Chachi #34 Harper / Hoskins HL / 2023 Chachi #36 Cristopher Sanchez

First Transactions of the 2022-2023 Offseason

2022 Topps #179

2022 Topps Living Set #565

2022 Topps Update #US14

2019 Topps #678

2021 Choice St. Paul Saints

I'm a natural list-maker and one list subject every year since the mid-1980s is a listing of Phillies' off-season transactions.  Whether it be in my old scrapbooks, in spiral-bound notebooks or on this blog, I've maintained lists of the players coming and going between the final pitch of one season and the first pitch of the next.  I realize these lists aren't needed now as much as they were back in the day, given there are multiple websites around tracking these sort of things, but with the World Series over and offseason transactions starting . . . here we go again.

Departures - 2022-2023 Offseason

• Johan Camargo - inf (10/7/22) - Elected free agency.
• Michael Kelly - rhp (10/14/22) - Elected free agency.
• Chris Devenski - rhp (11/6/22) - Elected free agency.
• Kyle Gibson - rhp (11/6/22) - Elected free agency.
• Brad Hand - lhp (11/6/22) - Elected free agency.
• Corey Knebel - rhp (11/6/22) - Elected free agency.
• David Robertson - rhp (11/6/22) - Elected free agency.
• Noah Syndergaard - rhp (11/6/22) - Elected free agency.
• Zach Eflin - rhp (11/7/22) - Elected free agency.
• Jean Segura - 2b (11/7/22) - Elected free agency.

Johan Camargo and Michael Kelly, both dropped from the team's 40-man roster earlier in the year, became free agents in the midst of the Phillies' postseason run.  On Sunday, the next six players listed above became free agents.  On Monday, the Phillies declined the option on Jean Segura and Zach Eflin declined his side of a mutual option, making them both free agents.

I wouldn't mind seeing Segura, Eflin, Robertson and/or Syndergaard come back in 2023 and if I had to guess the latter two probably have the best chance of donning red pinstripes again.

New Additions - 2022-2023 Offseason

• Luis Ortiz - rhp (11/9/22) - Claimed off waivers from the San Francisco Giants.
• Andrew Vasquez - rhp (11/9/22) - Claimed off waivers from the San Francisco Giants.

On Wednesday, the Phillies added two potential 2023 pitchers to their arsenal, claiming Luis Ortiz and Andrew Vasquez off waivers from the Giants.  Ortiz appeared in six games for the Giants in 2022, earning a 1.04 ERA in 8 2/3 innings pitched.  He had previously appeared in three games for the Orioles in 2018 and 2019, and his last mainstream baseball card can be found in the 2019 Topps set.

Vasquez appeared in nine games for the Blue Jays and one game for the Giants, spending 12 days on the Phillies' 40-man roster in August before re-entering the waiver wire shuffle.  He's got several minor league baseball card appearances, but nothing mainstream to date.