Joey Ortiz was one of the worst hitters in baseball for most of the year, but he has been unstoppable as of late.
Ortiz's glove has always been elite and has kept him in the lineup as a regular for the last couple of years. However, he was sharing time with David Hamilton and Luis Rengifo this year, and his offensive production was at an all-time low. He entered June with a .188 batting average and a .518 OPS. His batting average is now up to .252 and his OPS is over .700.
Since June 1, Ortiz has a .299/.343/.497 slash line, and after countless adjustments to his swing and facial hair switch-ups, he seems to have found something that works. He has been solid since the calendar flipped to June, but really his takeoff came when Cooper Pratt made his debut.
With Pratt in the big leagues to play shortstop every day, Ortiz moved back to third base to share time with Hamilton. Hamilton suffered a hamstring injury early in June, and Ortiz was playing every day. Since Pratt's debut on June 16, Ortiz is hitting .302 and has hit six of his seven home runs this season. His OPS in that span is .860.
Something about playing third base regularly may have done something for Ortiz's offense. His numbers as a third baseman are significantly better than his numbers as a shortstop. The defense at both spots is elite.
Ortiz has been great since Partt came up, but since July 4, he has been on another level. Since Independence Day, he has a .347 batting average, five homers, six doubles, two triples, three stolen bases and nine walks. He has 11 multi-hit games in that span, after having just seven to that point in the season. His 1.007 OPS is the best in baseball since July 4 as well.
Yes, Ortiz's OPS is higher than Yordan Alvarez, Pete Crow-Armstrong, Shohei Ohtani, Pete Alonso, James Wood and any hitter with at least 100 plate appearances. It's hard to believe that this is the same player who was hitting below the Mendoza Line for the first two months of the year.
He is still sharing some starts with David Hamilton, but Pat Murphy may have no choice but to play him as a regular at this point.