He was drafted by the White Sox in the 27th round out of high school, but opted to play for Coach Clay Gould at UT Arlington.

His brother, Chris, was drafted by the Cubs out of high school, but went on to pitch at Navaro and Texas Tech.

On September 7, he hit a walk-off home run to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers at AT&T Park.

Ortmeier competed for the starting first base job in 2008 spring training, but lost the competition to Rich Aurilia.

At the request of the team, Ortmeier gave up switch hitting in favor of batting exclusively from the right side.