Eric Orze (RHP, NYM)

Eric Orze was a COVID year draft by the Mets in the 5th round out of the University of New Orleans. He posted some eye-popping numbers for the college, but it was only over 19.2 innings before the season was shortened due to the pandemic. It’s obvious someone saw something in Ozre in that shortened year and Ozre is knocking on the door of the Majors in just his second pro season. Over his career 93.2 innings between the A+-AAA levels he’s posted a 129/25 K/BB and a 3.84 ERA.

Orze has a long, lean, and rangy build that has plenty of room for added strength in future years which I believe is likely to add a tick of velocity on his fastball. Ozre has pitched exclusively out of the bullpen in the pro ranks while also showing the ability to eat up multiple innings in relief and maintain his stuff over those frames.

Orze has a simple and repeatable delivery; he works exclusively out the stretch and has a very slight open stride down the slope, along with a head whack. Other than the head whack, the delivery is clean and I’d grade it average overall. He throws out of a H 3/4 slot and has a very short, compact arm circle. His short path is clean and free of impediments and his arm is consistently on time upon foot strike. It’s not an overly quick or loose arm action, but it is free of red flags.

He uses a four-seam FB (avg: 93 mph) that shows above average life through the zone and has right under 20-degrees of vertical movement. His compact, short arm action also contributes to how well his heater plays up in the zone. In my video looks, the offering didn’t have the same fuzz or miss as many bats when he was working below the belt. Ozre’s control is well ahead of the command in regard to the FB, he fills it up consistently, but there’s not consistent spot-up ability. I have future fringe-average FB command on him, with above-average control, which will more than play given the life of the pitch and how well it plays off his bread and butter offering, the splitter.

Speaking of the splitter (avg: 82 mph), he throws it with FB arm speed and does a very nice job of selling the offering to add an extra tick of deception. The pitch has significant depth to it and has very late dive and bottom action, which generates a lot of swing and miss from both RH and LH batters, but is especially effective at neutralizing LH hitters. I’m not sure if he’s doing it on purpose, but he also flashed several splits that had more traditional fade/sink CH action, but every version of the pitch he showed was effective. Orze shows advanced feel for locating the offering and doesn’t have to use it as strictly a chase pitch like many split-happy pitchers. I see his split-finger being a plus pitch in the very near future.

The third pitch in Orze’s arsenal is his SL (avg: 84 mph). When the offering is at its best, it shows short downer shape along with average teeth. The offering is far from consistent though relating to both the shape and bite the pitch shows. He has advanced feel for the offering, but it does have a tendency to back up on him or have fringy bite from pitch to pitch. He flashes enough average SL’s that I’m optimistic he can develop more consistency with it and it becomes a 50 offering for him in the future.

I have Orze being a 50-grade RP in the near future at the ML level. He’s a reliever that can cover multiple innings out of the bullpen or come in and get a punch out to get out of an existing jam. He’s going to battle the long ball a bit due to the inconsistency of his FB command and the action on his SL but there’s plenty to look forward to with Orze, especially when you consider he was a 5th round pick in 2020.