By Miguel Rapetti
Feb 28, 2024, 11:51 PM EST
The current World Series champions in Major League Baseball, Texas Rangers, announced this Wednesday the death of the team’s former coach, Puerto Rican Héctor Ortiz, after a long battle against cancer.
A text published on the Rangers’ social media accounts the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona.
“We mourn the passing of veteran Major and Minor League coach Héctor Ortiz, who passed away this morning at the age of 54 after a long battle with cancer. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends during this time,” the Rangers wrote on the website.
We mourn the passing of longtime Major and Minor League coach, Hector Ortiz, who died this morning at age 54 after a long cancer battle. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends during this time. pic.twitter.com/rE5OuDEZaD
— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) February 28, 2024
In his career, Ortiz played 93 games in parts of four seasons in the Major Leagues with the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers; However, his most notable work came as a coach.
Ortiz worked for 18 years with the Rangers, both at the Major League level and in the minor leagues, starting between 2006 and 2008, as a hitting coach in the Rangers’ Class A circuit, with the Spokane Indians of the Northwest League.
He later moved to a managerial position at the Class A level, where he led the Hickory Crawdads of the Class A South Atlantic League in the 2009 season, and served as hitting coach in 2010.
His work with the Rangers began in 2011 and continued until 2014 when he gave away his knowledge as a catcher by coordinating the players of this position in the Rangers’ minor league.
Ortiz achieved his promotion to the big team in the 2015 campaign, as a first base coach, a position he held until he was moved to the bullpen in the 2018 contest, returning to instruct at first base a season later.
In 2020 he acted as the receivers coach of the Texas-based club, showing his knowledge of the game under the command of managers Jeff Banister and Chris Woodward and finally had a short internship in the Puerto Rican league before fully facing his battle against cancer.
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