Héctor Ortiz (baseball)

Héctor Ortiz Montañez (born October 14, 1969) is a Puerto Rican former professional baseball catcher and current coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers. He has coached in MLB for the Texas Rangers.

Héctor Ortiz
Ortiz during a game in Texas in May 2016
Catcher / First base coach
Born: (1969-10-14) October 14, 1969
Río Piedras, Puerto Rico
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 14, 1998, for the Kansas City Royals
Last MLB appearance
May 15, 2002, for the Texas Rangers
MLB statistics
Batting average.288
Home runs1
Runs batted in18
Teams
As player

As coach

Playing career

Ortiz was born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico and attended Luis Hernaiz Verone High School in Canovanas, Puerto Rico. Ortiz attended Paris Junior College in Paris, Texas, and Ranger College in Ranger, Texas. He was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 35th round of the 1988 MLB Draft.[1]

Ortiz's career spanned from 1988 through 2005. He spent eight seasons in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, five in the Kansas City Royals, two in the Chicago Cubs, and one each in the Colorado Rockies, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, and Washington Nationals organizations.[2]

Major leagues

Ortiz appeared in 86 Major League games in 1998, 2000, and 2001 for the Kansas City Royals. He played in 7 games with the Texas Rangers in 2002.[1]

Coaching career

Minor Leagues

Retiring after the 2005 season, Ortiz rejoined the Texas Rangers as a minor league coach. In 2006, 2007, and 2008 he was the hitting coach for the Spokane Indians of the Class A Short Season Northwest League. He was the manager of the Hickory Crawdads of the Class A South Atlantic League in 2009 and their hitting coach in 2010. In 2011, he was the manager for the Arizona Rangers of the Rookie-level Arizona League. From 2011 through 2014, Ortiz served as the Rangers Minor League catching coordinator.[3]

Texas Rangers

Ortiz served as the Texas Rangers first base coach in 2015, 2016, and 2017. In 2018, he served as the major league bullpen coach.[3] Ortiz returned to the role of first base coach of the Texas Rangers for the 2019 season.[4] Ortiz served as the Rangers catching coach in 2020, and was let go following that season.[5]

See also

References
  1. "Hector Ortiz". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  2. "Hector Ortiz". thebaseballcube.com. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  3. "Hector Ortiz #4". MLB.com. Retrieved February 1, 2019.
  4. Daniel Kramer (November 14, 2018). "Ortiz named Rangers Hitting Coach". MLB.com. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
  5. Chris Halicke (October 6, 2020). "Texas Rangers Dismiss Coaches Julio Rangel, Héctor Ortiz After Challenging 2020 Season". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved December 1, 2020.


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