Browse entire “40-man, Player by Player” series here.
Previous entry: Garrett Olson.  Next up, Edward Paredes.

The Seattle Mariners drafted Venezuelan born right hander Ricky Orta with the 111th overall pick of the 2006 draft out of the University of Miami (and a pitching staff that also included Mariners’ first base prospect Dennis Raben).  Orta put up fair numbers as a starter for his first two and a half seasons with the Mariners in stops with Everett, Wisconsin and High Desert, but was pushed to the bullpen for all the main reasons starters turn into relievers.  He had some minor injury problems, was walking more than his fair share of hitters and didn’t have much in the way of good secondary offerings.  He took off as a reliever with AA West Tenn however, putting up a 1.94 ERA (2.98 FIP) in 41.2 innings, racking up 41 strikeouts against 18 walks.

The 25 year old Orta is the first player in our series who has yet to see the big leagues.  He was added to the 40-man roster this offseason to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft.  As you can probably imagine, information on relievers who have yet to pitch above AA is scarce, but we do know that his fastball ranges from the low to mid 90s and he has a workable but unspectacular slurvey thing.  Because of his control issues and lack of a dynamite second offering, his upside is limited in the ‘pen.  Unless something changes, he probably tops out as a 7th inning arm.

Orta could be considered a darkhorse for one of the last bullpen spots, but given the glut up veteran non-roster guys and higher upside arms such as Joshua Fields and Anthony Varvaro he will likely have to wait for a spot to open up after a couple guys go down with injuries or fail to bring their 2009 performance into 2010.