Ramon Ortiz didn’t pitch in the majors this year, spending the whole season at Triple-A in the Yankees’ farm system, and now the 39-year-old right-hander has agreed to a minor league deal with the Blue Jays.
Toronto also signed journeyman outfielder Ryan Langerhans, who presumably has a much better chance than Ortiz of actually playing for the Blue Jays in 2013.
It’s amazing that Ortiz was able to have an 11-year career in the big leagues considering he had an ERA below 4.00 exactly one time, way back in 2002, and hasn’t posted an ERA below 4.43 since then. During that nine-season span he threw 837 innings with a 5.26 ERA, yet was employed by seven different MLB teams. Must be a helluva guy.
Langerhans is a good defensive outfielder with a career .226 batting average and .704 OPS in 593 games, but the 33-year-old hasn’t gotten more than 150 plate appearances in the majors since 2007.