On May 15, 1971, the Atlanta Braves gave pitcher Luis Tiant his unconditional release. They had signed Tiant a month earlier and sent him to Richmond, where he failed to show enough to warrant bringing him back to the big leagues. Two days later, he signed with the Red Sox, and spent the rest of the year in Boston as a spot starter and long reliever, going 1-7 with an ERA of nearly 5 runs a game. At season?s end, the Red Sox released him, though they invited him to spring training the following year. He was 31 years old.
Tiant not only made the team in 1972, he ended up in the starting rotation. Over the next seven seasons he would win 121 games ? a 20-game winner in three of those seasons ? for the Red Sox, resurrecting a career that had seemed all but over. He?d go on to pitch for the Yankees, Pirates and Angels, retiring at 41 with a near-Hall of Fame-caliber 229-172 record, and a 3.30 ERA.
I thought of Tiant the other day when the Orioles announced the signing of Russ Ortiz. Ortiz, a consistent winner for the Giants and Braves prior to joining Arizona as a free agent, is roughly the same age Tiant was when he hit the skids.
Ortiz signed a 4-year, $33 million contract with the D-backs in December 2004 after going 36-16 over two seasons with Atlanta ? and pitching guru Leo Mazzone. He suffered a rib cage injury in 2005, spent some time on the DL for the first time in his career, and finished 5-11. This year a calf injury got in the way, and he was 0-5 when Arizona opted to say goodbye, still owing him roughly $22 million.
Can Ortiz be another Tiant? There are no guarantees, but there are certainly parallels that hint at the possibility. The Orioles have nothing to lose, and obviously, if Ortiz gets a fewstarts and gets hammered, he could end up back on the market again.
But, suppose those injuries really are the reason Russ couldn?t win in Arizona? What if Mazzone saw something mechanical on a video, and knew instantly that he could fix it? Bringing Ortiz aboard could be a watershed moment for a starting rotation with obvious problems, or turn into an insignificant waste of time.
Either scenario is more than worth the effort for a club not likely to contend any time soon. It?s an opportunity for both sides, and at 32, Russ Ortiz may have enough left to stick around for a while.
Listen to Phil Wood every Saturday at 11 a.m. on ESPN Radio 1300.
