The Nats have really felt the losses of Curtis Mead and Luis Garcia Jr. lately. An offense that was once an unstoppable force has fallen on its face. During this road trip, the Nats are 3 for 46 with RISP. However, there is one new bat they added to the fold that really intrigues me, and it is Abimelec Ortiz.
Part of the reason trading Garcia made sense for the Nats was that they had a plug and play replacement in Ortiz. The Nats acquired the 24 year old in the MacKenzie Gore trade, and he has been
mashing at AAA all year. He has an .845 OPS with 18 homers this season while having some bad luck mixed in as well. Ortiz is a big man who can punish baseballs, which is what he has been doing in the minors.
However, Ortiz is more than your prototypical feast or famine power hitter. This season he is striking out under 20% of the time in the minors. He is also whiffing and making contact at better than average clips. Ortiz has proven to be a complete hitter in the minors this year, with not many holes in his profile.
His swing decisions are not elite, but they are solid. That is good enough for a player with huge power and better than average contact skills. One of the great things about Ortiz is that he does a really good job tapping into his power. He is hitting the ball on the ground less than 35% of the time this year and pulling it in the air at an 18% clip.
This is a hitter that is built to do damage. His average exit velocity is over 91 MPH, his max EV is over 116 and his 90th percentile EV, a good measure of power, is at 107 which is elite. We still need to see Ortiz produce in the big leagues to be sure, but he seems like a pretty safe bet to be an above average hitter.
I have gone into plenty of numbers, but when you watch Ortiz, there is a lot to like. He is one of those guys that looks hitterish in the box. It is like that big kid on your little league team who just hits tanks. Ortiz has that sort of presence in the box. His swing is also really nice to watch with his quick hands and fast bat.
Ortiz has only had 6 MLB AB’s to this point, but I have liked what I have seen so far. He does not look overmatched by big league pitching at all to this point. The first baseman also looks very confident in the box.
In Ortiz’s first at bat back in the big leagues, he hit his first career homer off of Aaron Nola. It was a majestic no doubt home run for the youngster. I have a feeling that we will be seeing quite a few of those down the stretch.
This offense has been in a real malaise lately. However, I think Ortiz is going to be one of the solutions rather than someone that holds this unit back. Ortiz really just seems to have everything you would want in a young hitter. He has the power, contact and a decent approach. Of course, the Major Leagues has a way of exposing guys, but I think Ortiz is a guy who sticks.
Ortiz can play first base, but his 5’10 height limits him a bit there. Ideally, he is a DH who occasionally plays first. That means he will really have to mash to have value. However, Ortiz seems like he is up to the job, particularly against right handed pitching.
It is easy for me to see a world where Ortiz is in that Vinnie Pasquantino, Jonathan Aranda or Alec Burleson tier of first baseman/DH’s who are not superstars but are productive regulars for a long time.
For a guy who was a tertiary piece in the MacKenzie Gore trade, that would be an awesome outcome. He still needs to prove it out on the field, but I am getting dangerously high on Abimelec Ortiz the more I look at him. The kid just hits man!
