{"id":68076,"date":"2025-08-14T16:42:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T16:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/68076\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T16:42:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T16:42:06","slug":"rafael-ortega-opts-out-of-mets-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/68076\/","title":{"rendered":"Rafael Ortega Opts Out Of Mets Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran outfielder Rafael Ortega<\/a> triggered an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Mets and was granted his release, MLBTR has learned<\/a>. He\u2019s a free agent who can sign with any club.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old Ortega signed a minor league deal with the Mets in the offseason, kicking off his second stint with the team. He also spent the 2023 campaign with the Mets, hitting .219\/.341\/.272 in 136 big league plate appearances and .230\/.379\/.398 in 140 Triple-A plate appearances.<\/p>\n

Ortega has picked up more than three years of major league service time and played in parts of eight big league seasons. He\u2019s a career .245\/.322\/.349 hitter in 1301 plate appearances as a big leaguer, highlighted by a 2021-22 run with the Cubs that saw him slash .265\/.344\/.408 (110 wRC+) in semi-regular action (701 plate appearances over 221 games).<\/p>\n

Ortega has spent the majority of the current season on the injured list due to a significant hamstring strain. He went on a low-level rehab stint in late July and was activated on the Triple-A roster earlier this month. He started only four of the nine games for the Mets\u2019 Triple-A Syracuse club since his reinstatement, however, and received 18 total plate appearances in that time. Top outfield prospect Carson Benge<\/a>\u2019s recent promotion to Syracuse would surely further reduce Ortega\u2019s playing opportunities, so he\u2019ll return to the open market in search of a new landing spot.<\/p>\n

In parts of 10 seasons at the Triple-A level, Ortega is a .286\/.370\/.446 hitter. He\u2019s a left-handed bat who can handle all three outfield positions. He\u2019ll be an option for any club looking for some experienced outfield depth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veteran outfielder Rafael Ortega triggered an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Mets and was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,53999,85],"class_list":["post-68076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-rafael-ortega","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}