UVA’s Ortiz signs free-agent deal with Padres

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

Virginia baseball graduate student Devin Ortiz signed free agent deal with the San Diego Padres on Tuesday. Ortiz joins the Padres organization as a two-way player just as he was over the duration of his Cavalier career.

He put forth his best collegiate season both on the mound and at the plate in 2022. He was one of five finalists for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award. He picked up Second Team All-America honors as a utility player from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, NCBWA and College Baseball Foundation. Ortiz played in all 58 games for the Cavaliers in 2022 and at the plate batted .286 (62 for 217) with 12 doubles, seven home runs and a career-high 47 RBI. On the mound he went 5-1 with a 2.03 ERA in 26.2 innings pitched. He fanned 37 batters and walked only three.

Ortiz had a knack for the big moment in his time at UVA. His walk-off, solo home run in the tenth inning of the 2021 NCAA Columbia Regional against ODU sent UVA to its seventh Super Regional. He also started the game on the mound, pitched four shutout innings and fanned six batters before being named the Columbia Regional Most Outstanding Player. In his 2022 campaign, he helped Virginia erase a three-run 10th inning deficit with a walk-off grand slam to clinch the series against North Carolina on April 23. Ortiz is the only UVA player in the last 22 years with two career walk-off homers.