The Orioles' fourth-round pick in the 2019 Major League Baseball amateur draft will likely need somewhat less time to adapt to living in Maryland than some of the other new players the team drafted June 3-5.
Joey Ortiz, a junior shortstop from New Mexico State, played for the Baltimore Dodgers of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League in 2017. He became familiar with the city, sampling local staples like crabs and crab cakes and took a trip to what he hopes will be his home field at Camden Yards.
"I was pretty surprised [when I got drafted]," Ortiz said on Glenn Clark Radio June 6. "I guess it kind of started my college career over there, so it's kind of cool to be able to get the call from Baltimore -- a place that I've already been, that I know people from."
