Righty Kaleb Ort is one of only a few relievers remaining from the 40-man roster when the offseason began. He survived significant roster turnover — along with John Schreiber, Ryan Brasier and Zack Kelly — despite posting a 6.35 ERA (28 ⅓ innings, 20 earned runs) as a 30-year-old rookie in 2022.
“He’s got stuff,” GM Brian O’Halloran said. “And if can throw more strikes, we just feel like his stuff is going to play in the big leagues.”
Ort — who went undrafted and pitched in Indy ball before receiving his shot in affiliated pro ball — didn’t spend time wondering if he might be next when the Red Sox front office was DFA’ing and trading relievers left and right this past offseason.
“That’s out of my control,” he said. “I’m not going to worry about that. I’m just going to do what I have to do and go from there.”
Ort does need to cut down on walks. He walked 15 (4.8 walks per nine innings) while striking out 27 (8.6 strikeouts per nine innings) as a rookie.
“I think it shows they believe in me,” Ort said about surviving roster cuts. “That’s obviously a big thing for me to understand and know. Just be ready to come out and prove them right hopefully.”
The Red Sox liked the potential they saw from Ort after he made changes to his delivery late last season. Ort continued to work on the consistency of his delivery during the offseason.
“I think that’s what we worked on a lot at the end of last year,” Ort said. “Just being more consistent with my delivery.”
The righty reached 100 mph (100.7 mph to be exact) with his fastball for the first time in his career Sept. 14 vs. the Yankees.
“I think that had a lot to do with the delivery we worked on, just speeding things up so my arm can come through quicker,” he said. “Timing. Just to be timed up better instead of trying to play catch-up with my arm the whole time. So it made the velo go up and everything got sharper.”
Ort didn’t think too much about someday having this type of opportunity when he was pitching in independent ball for the Joliet Slammers in 2016 as a 24-year-old.
“Obviously it’s a thought, a hope and a dream,” Ort said. “You know, coming out of college, not getting drafted, going into Indy ball, your chances are a lot slimmer than other routes. But when you start grinding and get signed, I was like, ‘OK, this is kind of cool.’ And then I started to move up and I was like, ‘Man, this might be a possibility.’ So the work you put in, you put in more work and you work harder because you’re like, ‘Dang, I am getting closer.’ But to think it ever really would happen seemed like a slim chance.”
Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Mich., was the only college that offered him out of high school.
“I went to a small NAIA school. Probably not getting the best looks there (from scouts),” he said. “Going into Indy ball, I still went as a starter because I was always a starter in college. And my manager there was like, ‘Hey, let’s change routes. Let’s put you in the bullpen.’ I went on the IL for a little bit just because of some inflammation. We worked on some mechanics and then everything was kind of smoother than it was. I was a little jerky. Fixed that and started going one-inning, two-inning (outings) and my velo crept up big time just by doing that. So I think that my velo creeping up really showed a little bit to whoever might have been watching in Indy ball.”
Asked if he was surprised by the roster turnover this past offseason, Ort said, “Not my place to worry about any of that. I just show up, try to do my job and leave all the other stuff out of it.”
Ort has a 3.24 ERA in 119 ⅓ career innings at Triple A.
“I just want the best out of myself,” Ort said. “Just do the best I can for the team. Just go out there and do what I know I’m capable of and hopefully avoid too many speed bumps.”
Ort works on cars
When he’s not playing baseball, Ort enjoys working on cars.
“Building cars up,” Ort said. “I’ve just done trucks and Jeeps and stuff.”
He said his dad Lynn Ort taught him.
“And then I just rolled with it and started toying around with everything,” Ort said.
“My dad and I, we want to redo a couple of old ones in the next few years,” he added.
Full article can be found at: https://www.masslive.com/redsox/2023/02/how-red-soxs-kaleb-ort-reached-1007-mph-and-survived-massive-roster-turnover.html