The Cincinnati Reds have released catcher Jose Ortiz. Ortiz has spent the entire 2015 season with the Dayton Dragons where he hit just .199/.229/.308 on the season.
The former 17th round draft pick out of Puerto Rico got out to a strong start in his career, hitting .281/.352/.502 between the Arizona League in 2012 and the Pioneer League with the Billings Mustangs in 2013. The jump to Low-A was tough going though.
Despite being in Dayton for essentially for a full season over the course of the second half of 2014 and the first half plus two weeks of the second half, he only played in 82 games as he split time with other catchers in both seasons.
The power he showed at the previous two stops just never showed up as he slugged just .321 with Dayton and while he would occasionally flash the power that one got him ranked as a Top 10 Cincinnati Reds prospect by Baseball Prospectus, he just never was able to find consistency with either his hit or power tools and get much out of them.
With the Dragons carrying three catchers prior to the move you had a feeling that something was coming along as there simply wasn’t enough playing time to go around for Ortiz, Garrett Boulware and Chad Tromp. It seems that the Reds made the decision today to clear up some playing time with the release of one of the catchers.