Roberto Ortiz
24 games graded behind the plate.
3,288 correct of 3,552 graded takes (92.6% ± 0.9, 95%). Best game 95.9% · worst 87.6%. Grade is accuracy on taken pitches vs the rulebook zone; ABS is the Automated Ball-Strike System challenge record (how often the robots overruled the call).
What we can't say about Roberto Ortiz
This season is 3,552 graded takes, which puts Roberto Ortiz's overall accuracy at 92.6% ± 0.9 (95% interval). That is a real measurement against a league spanning about four points end to end. It is not enough for anything finer, and here is the arithmetic rather than our word for it:
- how the zone moves with two strikes — about 710 takes, so ±1.9 points. (the league-wide two-strike effect is about 1 point in 2026.)
- any single corner of the zone — about 296 takes, so ±3.0 points. (corner cells are where umpires actually differ.)
- whether one pitcher is called tighter than another — about 59 takes, so ±6.7 points. (a given pitcher is worked once or twice a season.)
And a note on the number itself: an accuracy figure is a rate plus a convention for what counts as a miss. Ours grades every taken pitch against the rulebook zone as the feed reports it. Others are more forgiving — UmpScorecards counts a call wrong only when the pitch was at least 90% likely to be a strike — so two sites can print the same percentage about the same umpire and not mean the same thing by it. How the grade is built.
The overturn rate is a different kind of number and does not belong beside the grade: it is accuracy on the 105 pitches players chose to challenge, which are the pitches they already believed were wrong. 105 is enough to print it with its own denominator, which is what we do — but it still ranks umpires by how often they are appealed, not by how often they are right.
The road to the plate
Roberto Ortiz: The Road From Caguas
The first Puerto Rican-born full-time MLB umpire, and the assignments that followed.
In 2018, two years after his major league debut, Roberto Ortiz worked an MLB regular season series in Puerto Rico — the first Puerto Rican-born umpire to do so. Ortiz was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico, on December 16, 1984, and his May 14, 2016, debut made him the first MLB umpire born on the island since Delfin Colon.
The climb to that debut took him through the minor leagues. He began umpiring in the minors in 2009, with stops in the New York-Penn League in 2010, the South Atlantic League in 2011, the Florida State League in 2012, and the Eastern League in 2012 and 2013. He reached the Pacific Coast League in 2014 and was working Triple-A East by 2021. When MLB promoted him to the full-time staff ahead of the 2022 season, he had compiled 411 games as a call-up umpire since 2016. That promotion made him the first Puerto Rican-born full-time Major League umpire.
His assignments have grown with the tenure. He worked the 2022 Wild Card games, Division Series in 2023, 2024, and 2025, and the 2023 World Baseball Classic. He wears uniform number 40 and serves on Crew D under crew chief Alan Porter.
His name is on this page because we have graded 17 of his games behind the plate this season.
Reporting: Wikipedia, MLB.com, Baseball Reference. Umpire data: MLB StatsAPI, via the Fever engine.
By the Desk · filed 2026-07-24 — the profile reads as of its filing; the grading record above is live · every fact in this piece comes from a sourced research pack and clears an independent fact-check, and nothing is edited after filing.
The games
| Game | Grade | Favor | ABS | Blue Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AZ @ SF2026-08-29 | B- | 0.7 SF | 1/4 | Squeezed the edges; the hitters didn't mind at all. |
| MIN @ ATH2026-08-26 | C+ | 1.2 ATH | 3/5 | Tonight's zone had a rooting interest. |
| AZ @ ATL2026-08-14 | A | 0.1 ATL | 1/1 | If umpiring had a highlight reel, this wouldn't make it. That's the compliment. |
| CIN @ CWS2026-08-11 | C+ | 0.2 CWS | 5/7 | The Automated Ball-Strike System put in some overtime here. |
| TB @ COL2026-08-05 | B | 1.2 COL | 3/5 | A tilt to the evening — the numbers say which way. |
| MIN @ SEA2026-08-01 | A- | 1.1 MIN | 4/4 | The zone leaned, and the ledger noticed. |
| NYY @ CWS2026-07-28 | A | 0.3 CWS | 3/4 | Down the middle. Both dugouts had the same zone. |
| PIT @ CLE2026-07-18 | C | 1.9 CLE | 5/7 | The challenge cart got its steps in. |
| ATH @ DET2026-07-09 | A | 0.0 ATH | 1/2 | A workmanlike night — nothing to frame, nothing to fix. |
| PHI @ KC2026-07-05 | C+ | 0.1 PHI | 4/5 | Pitchers earned every strike the hard way. |
| STL @ ATL2026-06-30 | A- | 0.5 ATL | 3/5 | An honest evening's grade: nothing loud, nothing missed by much. |
| TEX @ TOR2026-06-25 | B- | 0.1 TOR | 3/4 | Pitchers earned every strike the hard way. |
| ATL @ NYM2026-06-14 | B+ | 0.4 ATL | 0/2 | The zone kept its promises. |
| BOS @ TB2026-06-09 | A- | 0.4 TB | 2/3 | Nothing that'll trend, and on this beat that's a compliment. |
| CWS @ PHI2026-06-05 | A- | 0.5 CWS | 2/5 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| SEA @ HOU2026-05-13 | A- | 0.4 HOU | 4/6 | Called a fair game and let the players decide it. |
| NYY @ MIL2026-05-09 | B | 1.3 NYY | 3/5 | One dugout got the friendlier version of the evening. |
| BAL @ MIA2026-05-05 | D | 1.1 BAL | 4/5 | Two dugouts, and only one of them smiling. |
| DET @ ATL2026-04-30 | B+ | 0.5 DET | 3/4 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| SD @ COL2026-04-23 | C | 0.4 COL | 3/7 | The black wasn't in play tonight. |
| TOR @ AZ2026-04-19 | D | 1.3 TOR | 2/4 | The corners were friendlier in one direction tonight. |
| CLE @ STL2026-04-14 | A | 0.6 CLE | 3/4 | A steady night's work behind the plate. |
| PIT @ CHC2026-04-10 | B- | 0.7 PIT | 2/3 | Squeezed the edges; the hitters didn't mind at all. |
| WSH @ CHC2026-03-29 | B+ | 0.2 WSH | 1/4 | Nothing off the plate, and not much on the black either. |