He played fifteen seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1972 to 1987 for the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays, and Kansas City Royals.

His second major league home run was an extra innings game winner on September 19 against Gary Waslewski and the Oakland A's.

[6] Playing through injuries for much of the year,[7] he batted .266 and tied for second in the American League (AL) with eighteen errors among second basemen.

Meanwhile, second base had become something of a revolving door, with Kessinger, Alan Bannister, Joe Gates, Jim Morrison and Greg Pryor all manning the position at one point or another.

[14] The feat raised his season average to .339, and likely played a part in his being named Cleveland's sole representative at the 1980 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

With prospect Von Hayes ready to assume an everyday major league job in right field, Orta became trade-bait at the 1981 Winter meetings.

[16] Shortly after acquiring Orta, the Mets traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays for pitcher Steve Senteney.

His ninth inning sacrifice fly on September 12 defeated the Minnesota Twins to move the Royals into a first place tie in the A.L.

They took first place for good when they took three of four games with the Angels in Kansas City toward the end of the season to head to the post-season for the second year in a row.

Orta was held hitless in five at-bats in the 1985 American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

At-bats were hard to come by in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, as it was played under National League rules without the DH in 1985.

Orta was called upon to pinch hit for Pat Sheridan leading off the ninth inning with the Royals down 1–0.

He hit a slow roller Cardinal first baseman Jack Clark fielded, and flipped to pitcher Todd Worrell covering first.

First base umpire Don Denkinger called Orta safe, but television replays showed that Worrell beat him to the bag.

The following batter, Steve Balboni, hit a pop foul that ended up falling between Clark and catcher Darrell Porter.

With Onix Concepción pinch running for Balboni, Jim Sundberg followed with an unsuccessful sacrifice bunt in which Orta was thrown out at third.

Dane Iorg, pinch hitting for Dan Quisenberry, singled to right field driving in two runs, and giving Kansas City a 2–1 win.