August 27, 1998: Two days after Orioles’ debut, Willis Otáñez’s season ends with fractured wrist

After nearly eight seasons in the minors, Willis Otáñez finally got the call to join a major-league roster in 1998. On August 25, the Baltimore Orioles prospect wore a big smile to the plate and experienced an exhilarating moment by poking a single to center in his first big-league at-bat.

Two days later, Otáñez’s vibrant smile remained, but his exhilaration quickly gave way to excruciating pain as the 25-year-old lay crumpled on the right-field grass at Comiskey Park in Chicago after dashing in and diving to try to catch Albert Belle’s shallow looper in the first inning of his second career start.

Otáñez caught the ball with a full-extension dive, but when he violently crashed to the turf, his gloved wrist snapped backward and the ball broke free. Writhing in pain, Otáñez left the August 27 game with a fractured left wrist – marking a sudden end to his first big-league season before it had barely gotten started.

“I told him not to worry,” said Orioles manager Ray Miller after the Chicago White Sox finished a three-game sweep with a 7-4 victory. “[I] said, ‘You’ve earned your shot here, and you’ll be here next year. You’ve shown me that you can be a good major-league player, so relax and travel with the club.’

“‘Sit back and help me manage or something.’”1

By that point in the season, the Orioles were in position to try anything.

About two hours before facing the White Sox, Miller closed the clubhouse for a 10-minute meeting with his team after the defending American League East Division champions had lost five of six games and fallen 10 games behind the Boston Red Sox in the race for the AL wild card.2

“I think we need to refocus,” Miller told reporters afterward. “The job you’re supposed to have when you sit here [as a manager] … when you have a veteran club, you expect it to correct itself. Sometimes that doesn’t happen.”3

Chicago, which had not made the postseason since 1993, sat 15 games under .500 and out of the playoff picture, but the White Sox did not concede an inch on the field. After completing the sweep of Baltimore in front of 14,241 fans on a Thursday night, they finished the season on a 21-9 run to end the season at 80-82.4

On this night, they took advantage of Baltimore starter Scott Erickson’s ineffectiveness from the onset. Erickson walked leadoff batter Ray Durham on four pitches, hit Mike Caruso, and walked Frank Thomas on six pitches to load the bases for Belle.

Belle looped Erickson’s first pitch toward the hard-charging Otáñez in right. The runners held while Otáñez made a valiant effort to catch the ball, but as the ball trickled away, Durham trotted home for a 1-0 lead.

“I’m still gonna dive the same way,” Otáñez said afterward, with his wrist in a cast. “I’m not gonna change anything. I’m not afraid. If I have to slide three times, that’s my job.”5

Otáñez, a natural infielder and primarily a third baseman, was promoted after starting pitcher Scott Kamienecki was placed on the disabled list for the third time.6 Even before Kamienecki’s injury, Otáñez had begun taking a crash course in right field for the Triple A Rochester Red Wings.7 Baltimore’s lineup had lacked a right-handed outfield power threat since Jeffrey Hammonds was dealt to the Cincinnati Reds on August 10,8 and Otáñez seemed like the logical choice to earn a promotion after piling up 27 home runs and 100 RBIs in Rochester.9

But Otáñez’s injury instead further complicated Baltimore’s outfield situation.10

Right fielder Eric Davis – who entered the game among the AL’s batting leaders with a .327 average – had hamstring soreness and pain in his throwing elbow, making him vulnerable on defense. Center fielder Brady Anderson had suffered a slightly torn patella tendon in his right knee while leaping at the wall for a catch on August 20. This game was the fifth and final one Anderson missed with the injury, but the Orioles had no way to know how it might affect him down the stretch – especially since the 34-year-old Anderson considered season-ending surgery.

“I hate to lose the kid [Otáñez], but he made a hell of a catch,” Miller said. “He’s going to be a good player. It’s just a setback.”11

After the injury delay, Erickson struck out Chicago’s Robin Ventura, but rookie Greg Norton beat out an infield single to score Caruso, rookie Jeff Abbott lifted a fly ball to center to bring home Thomas, and rookie Magglio Ordóñez also beat out an infield single that allowed Belle to cross the plate and give the White Sox a 4-0 lead. Chicago had scored at least four runs in an inning in every game of the series.12

Future Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr. and Harold Baines hit back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners to open Baltimore’s second, and though Lenny Webster grounded into a double play, it gave Ripken time to scamper home in his 2,611th consecutive game played.13 Rich Becker – who replaced Otáñez – homered for the second time in the series to lead off the sixth and cut Chicago’s lead to 4-2.

The power-packed White Sox converted their first suicide squeeze bunt of the season in the bottom of the sixth when Abbott dashed home as rookie catcher Robert Machado poked a bunt toward Erickson.14 In the seventh, Norton finished his 3-for-3 effort with a two-run homer that ended Erickson’s outing and gave the White Sox a 7-2 advantage.

“I’m just trying to go out there and play hard,” said Norton, who had raised his batting average by 41 points in his last 22 games. “Erickson is one of the nastiest pitchers I’ve ever faced. I was just trying to survive out there.”15

Baltimore’s Rafael Palmeiro launched his 40th home run of the season,16 a two-run shot, in the eighth, but Chicago closer Bill Simas pitched a one-two-three ninth for his 17th save,17 preserving rookie starter Jim Parque’s fourth career victory. Erickson fell to 14-10 with the loss.

Parque, a 23-year-old southpaw, fought a head cold throughout the game but extended his streak of 12 starts without giving up more than four earned runs.18 In six innings of work, he did not walk a batter, marking his first big-league start without one.

“My head feels as big as this clubhouse,” Parque said after the game. “I’ve always thrown better when I was sick. In college [at UCLA], I threw with mono. I was huffin’ and puffin’ out there.”19

The White Sox piled up 25 runs during their first three-game sweep of the season,20 which doubled as their first sweep of the Orioles in Chicago since May 15-17, 1990 – even as Baltimore trotted out its top three starting pitchers: Erickson, Mike Mussina, and Juan Guzmán.21

“We go home and start with a clean slate,” Miller said. “These last three days haven’t been what we wanted, but we have to get past that.”22

But it wasn’t to be, as less than a week later, Chicago swept Baltimore at Camden Yards from August 31-September 2, sending the Orioles below .500 with their 10th straight loss.23 Baltimore finished the season 79-83 and fourth in the AL East a year after winning 98 games.

The next spring, Miller held true to his initial post-injury promise to Otáñez, who made the 1999 Opening Day roster as a backup corner infielder. Otáñez, however, struggled over the first six weeks of the season, began to lose playing time, and was designated for assignment on May 25 when veteran first baseman Will Clark was activated from the disabled list.    

Otáñez primarily played at third base – his best natural position – because Ripken went on the disabled list for the first time in his career on April 19, but Otáñez committed four errors in 22 games. Offensively, he hit .213 with 2 home runs and struck out 16 times in 89 plate appearances (18.0 percent).

“He was in there every day for almost three weeks,” Miller said. “I think that’s a good look. I have no complaints about his work ethic. He’s a great kid. But when I project him for the future, I don’t know if he’s going to be better defensively.”24

Miller later added: “If you’re an average or above-average defensive player, you can be a lot more patient with the offensive part of it. It wasn’t like it was just my opinion; it was everybody’s opinion.”25

The AL East rival Toronto Blue Jays quickly signed Otáñez, and while he finished out the 1999 season there, he did not recapture his minor-league offensive production. In 42 games, he homered 5 times and hit .252 but struck out 21.9 percent of the time.

Otáñez never appeared in the major leagues again but continued to play professionally until age 42. He spent many seasons in the Mexican League,26 while also playing in Taiwan, the independent Atlantic League, and winter leagues in his native Dominican Republic and Venezuela.27

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Ray Danner and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Willis Otáñez, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the Baseball-Reference.com, Stathead.com, and Retrosheet.org websites for pertinent statistics and the box scores. He also used information obtained from the Baltimore Sun, York (Pennsylvania) Daily Record, and Chicago Tribune.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA199808270.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1998/B08270CHA1998.htm

Notes

1 Roch Kubatko, “Otáñez’s Fracture Is a Break for Clyburn,” Baltimore Sun, August 29, 1998: 8C.

2 The meeting was later described as “turbulent.” Joe Strauss, “O’s Skid Below .500,” Baltimore Sun, September 3, 1998: 5E.

3 Joe Strauss, “Miller Talks Baseball With O’s,” Baltimore Sun, August 28, 1998: D6.

4 The Toronto Blue Jays also went 21-9 in their final 30 games of the 1998 season. The teams tied for the best record down the stretch in the majors, topping the St. Louis Cardinals and Houston Astros by one game.

5 Dave Buscema, “Smile Glows Despite Years of Heartache,” York (Pennsylvania) Daily Record, August 29, 1998: 1D.

6 Kamienecki suffered from a recurring bulging disc in his neck and missed the rest of the season. The injury had earlier cost him more than two weeks in late April and early May, all of June, and most of July. He struggled in five starts between his July return and August recurrence, going 0-4 with a 6.75 ERA.

7 Otáñez made his first appearance in right field on August 20 against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons. He played right field again the next night, his last minor-league game before getting promoted.

8 The Orioles received Willie Greene in return. Greene, a left-handed hitter, hit one home run in 24 appearances with Baltimore, though Hammonds did not slug a homer in 26 games for the Reds.

9 Otáñez became the first player since Jim Fuller in 1973 to drive in 100 runs for the Red Wings. In 1994 Jeff Manto had 83 of his 100 RBIs with Rochester after starting the season with the Norfolk Tides in the New York Mets organization.

10 Otáñez was replaced on the roster by rookie outfielder Danny Clyburn, who had three at-bats in 1997 and hit .280 in 11 games with the Orioles in 1998.

11 Dave Buscema, “O’s Blown Out by Sox,” York Daily Record, August 28, 1998: 1B.

12 In the series opener on August 25, Chicago scored four times in the seventh, and the next night the White Sox exploded for a six-run second inning.

13 Ripken voluntarily ended his consecutive games streak soon after, on September 20. Otáñez began his career as a shortstop because he idolized Ripken. He later started in Ripken’s place in 1999 when the “Ironman” went on the disabled list for the first time in his career that April.

14 For the season, the White Sox hit 198 home runs, the seventh-most in the AL. They were led by Albert Belle’s 49 homers and league-leading .655 slugging percentage. First-year manager Jerry Manuel was pleased to see his offense use small-ball tactics during the win over Baltimore, including five walks and two sacrifices. “You’re not going to hit a home run every night,” he said. “Sometimes, you have to execute the little things and be creative.” Teddy Greenstein, “Little Things Add Up to Big Night for Sox,” Chicago Tribune, August 28, 1998: 4-3.

15 Associated Press, “White Sox Hand Orioles Fourth Straight Loss,” Taylorville (Illinois) Breeze-Courier, August 28, 1998: 9.

16 Palmeiro became the fourth player in franchise history to reach the 40-home run plateau, joining Brady Anderson (50 in 1996), Frank Robinson (49 in 1966), and Jim Gentile (46 in 1961). Palmeiro had narrowly missed the mark in the three previous seasons (39 in 1995 and ’96, and 38 in 1997). He ended the 1998 season with 43 home runs and hit 47 in 1999 with the Texas Rangers. He hit 47 home runs in 2001 and added 43 in 2002. Between 1998 and 2002, Palmeiro hit the second-most home runs among AL players (219), trailing only Álex Rodríguez (234). Chicago Cubs outfielder Sammy Sosa (292) and San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds (239) paced the National League over the same span.

17 Simas notched his seventh save in August. He emerged as the primary closer for Chicago in mid-July after Matt Karchner faltered in the ninth inning in three straight appearances between July 12 and July 17.

18 Parque matched the feat in his next three starts before surrendering seven earned runs to the Boston Red Sox on September 18.

19 Associated Press, “Orioles Don’t Get the Message and Falter,” Los Angeles Times, August 28, 1998: C11.

20 That marked the most runs for the White Sox in a three-game series sweep since they scored 25 from May 24 to May 26, 1996, while sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers. Earlier that month, from May 17 to 19, they scored 41 runs in a sweep at Detroit, which is the franchise record for a three-game series. The most runs Chicago ever scored in any three-game span through the 2024 season was 44 runs between a win against the Washington Senators on July 17, 1936, and a sweep of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics the next day. Additionally, their sweep of Baltimore doubled as their first three-game sweep at Comiskey Park since beating the Houston Astros from August 29 to August 31, 1997.

21 Coming into the series, Erickson led the AL with 201 2/3 innings pitched and 9 complete games. He stood at 14-9 with three straight wins and a 3.88 ERA. Mussina was 12-6 with a 3.39 ERA and had won five of his last six starts. Guzmán, acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays in a July 31 trade, had won four of his last six starts.

22 Joe Strauss, “White Sox Rip Fading O’s Again,” Baltimore Sun, August 28, 1998: D1.

23 Baltimore had not suffered a double-digit losing streak since opening the 1988 season 0-21.

24 Joe Strauss, “Clark Arrives; Otáñez on Way Out,” Baltimore Sun, May 26, 1999: 6D.

25 Joe Strauss, “Jays Take Otáñez, but Miller Not Worried,” Baltimore Sun, May 29, 1999: 8C.

26 Otáñez’s best season came in 2010 when he won MVP honors after hitting .394 with 12 home runs for Pericos de Puebla.

27 In total, Baseball-Reference credits Otáñez with 25 seasons as a professional. He collected 3,157 hits and slugged 446 home runs in a career that spanned 1991 to 2015.