(KMOX) - There's been much ado about St. Louis Cardinals No. 1 catcher, Yadier Molina this past week, as he crushed a home run, begged a base runner to try and steal second off him and already played a full 9-inning game. But now, a Cardinals catching prospect is making some noise on social media after he correctly predicted the outcome of a pitch.
Cardinals Nation, meet Dennis Ortega.
In the bottom of the 8th inning in St. Louis' 7-5 spring training loss to the New York Mets, our Kevin Wheeler pointed out an incredible moment that happened. He tweeted out a video of a sinker thrown by Jake Woodford to a right-handed batter that ended up as a groundout to third base.
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But you need to see what Ortega did before the pitch was thrown?
He pointed – not subtly – to the left side of the field to signal to his third baseman, Max Moroff that the ball was coming his way. And it did.
Now, infielders being aligned in certain spots depending on the hitter and pitch type isn't a groundbreaking concept. Literally all 30 MLB teams do this based on situational statistics. But Ortega predicted it in the moment and was so confident that he pointed it out.
That's not nothing.
Ortega, 23, is in his fifth big-league spring training with the Cardinals. And he's apparently learned a thing or two after five years of working with one of the greatest catchers of all time. The Venezuela native played in single-A Palm Beach in 2019 and is certainly no where near cracking the Major League roster anytime soon.
But don't forget about him.
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