Orioles GM Mike Elias addressed reporters this afternoon regarding the status of right-hander Felix Bautista, who exited yesterday’s game against the Rockies with what was termed at the time as “arm discomfort.” It now appears that discomfort was something far more severe than initially indicated, as Elias told reporters (including MASN’s Roch Kubatko) that Bautista is dealing with “some degree of injury” to his ulnal collateral ligament. Naturally, Bautista is headed to the injured list, with Andy Kostka of of the Baltimore Banner reporting that left-hander DL Hall will take Bautista’s place on the Orioles’ roster. Baltimore has since made that move official, placing Bautista on the 15-day IL with a “right UCL injury” while recalling Hall.
While a prognosis is not yet known and no timetable regarding Bautista’s injury has been announced, it seems at least possible that the news brings an end to a season that has been nothing short of sensational for the 28-year-old righty. Bautista made his debut in the major leagues for the Orioles last year and produced an excellent season, with a 2.19 ERA, 2.91 FIP, 15 saves and a 34.8% strikeout rate across 65 appearances. Those numbers from his rookie season were impressive enough to convince Elias and his front office to ship then-closer Jorge Lopez to Minnesota at the trade deadline last year, with Bautista looking to be the club’s closer of the future.
The 2023 campaign has seen Bautista not only make good on that promise, but make a case for himself as the best reliever in the entire sport this year. In 61 innings of work this year, Bautista has racked up 33 saves (just one less than league leaders Alexis Diaz and Emmanuel Clase) while posting an unbelievable 46.4% strikeout rate with ERA (1.48) and FIP (1.89) marks below 2.00. His 2.8 fWAR this season puts him 20th in baseball among all pitchers, a figure that puts him in the same conversation as front-end arms like Luis Castillo and Kodai Senga despite offering less than half the volume of those starters.
Bautista’s heroics this season have catapulted Baltimore’s bullpen to or near the top of plenty of leaderboards this season. They collectively sport the sixth-best ERA (3.55), the best FIP (3.51) and fWAR total (6.8), and the third-highest strikeout rate (26.5%) in the majors this year, even in spite of middling performances from the likes of Shintaro Fujinami, Austin Voth, and Cionel Perez. The loss of Bautista naturally complicates the future for the club’s relief corps, though the addition of Hall, a former first-round pick who has posted gaudy strikeout totals in both the majors and minors despite limited big league experience, could provide a boost down the stretch.
Fellow right-hander Yennier Cano, who was acquired as part of the return in the aforementioned Lopez deal last year, seems primed to step into the closer’s role in Bautista’s stead. Cano is in the midst of what has been an excellent season of his own, with a phenomenal 1.62 ERA and 2.68 FIP. He’s managed to post those numbers in spite of a far less impressive strikeout rate of 24.2% thanks to a combination of a sensational groundball rate of 58.5% and a minuscule 4.2% walk rate.
Still, even in spite of the potential upside of Hall and the excellent performance of Cano, the loss of Bautista is a potentially catastrophic blow for the Orioles, who currently lead the AL East with an 80-48 record that trails only the Braves in all of MLB. Baltimore opted against any impact additions to a relatively weak starting staff that ranks just 19th in the majors in terms of fWAR and 15th by measure of ERA, instead only adding right-hander Jack Flaherty (91 ERA+ in 23 starts this season) to the mix. The club’s dominant bullpen, led by Bautista, surely played a role in the club’s decision not to more aggressively pursue an impactful arm like Eduardo Rodriguez or Jordan Montgomery.
With Bautista’s season now seemingly in peril, the club will have to lean more heavily on its rotation group going forward. Flaherty has struggled in three starts with the Orioles to this point, with a 7.07 ERA in 14 innings of work, but has a history as an excellent mid-rotation arm in the not-to-distant past. Kyle Bradish (3.03 ERA in 23 starts) has emerged as a clear playoff-caliber rotation arm this season, while rookie Grayson Rodriguez has posted a 3.24 ERA in seven starts since rejoining the team last month. Veteran righty Kyle Gibson has managed to keep the team in games despite a middling 4.89 ERA thanks to fourteen quality starts, a figure that places him in the top 10 among all AL pitchers this season.
Those extra two roster spots on 9/1 will go to pitchers. Wells, Means, Baker, Krehbiel, Vespi…they have the depth. Closer by committee likely with Cano leading the way.
Cano has been very good at times. But he’s been inconsistent for quite some time now. In fact, a number of times Bautista had to come in during the 8th inning to get him out of jams.
Inconsistent and 1.68 era with .98 whip??? Hmmm we must watch another game. Another swing and miss from Samuel lol
Since Cano added a slider about a month ago, he’s been back to being very effective. Hopefully he can keep it going. If him closing doesn’t work out , Os may be in trouble? Only guy that has the stuff, and with control, to close is probably SP JRod. Hall and the Figi guy have the stuff but are wild.
Oops meant “GRod” not “JRod”.
baseball99;
His eye-popping stats were recorded earlier in the season. They’ve carried over to his yearly stats. His pitches have been moving out of the zone for months.
I watch a lot of Orioles games. He was an exceptional set-up guy knowing Bautista was behind him. Setting up and closing are two radically different things.
This also means their #2 reliver has to be replaced. We’ll see what happens.
By the way, how’s your rotisserie league team doing this year?
Actually Cano’s ERA in the months of June and July was like 5+. Only recently has he started being reliable again.
Samuel, that’s wrong. Cano had a 1.74 ERA in June and a 0.00 ERA in 10 appearances in August.
The only time he “struggled” was in July.
At least look at the stats before commenting.
You watch a lot…except for the last 10 or 11 games for Cano. He had a rough stretch but he’s back out of it again.
I’m hoping the stl brown win the 2023 world series… this doesn’t help
@Samuel, Cano has only gave up run(s) twice in last 17 outings including the one game he gave 2 Rs for the first time this season. He simply has been anything but inconsistent. They keep stats on these type of things…..
@Samuel which James do u speak of? Cano has not allowed more than 1 runner to reach base si ce back in July. Also has not allowed a run since July.
How does Gunnar Henderson throwing a ball into the opposing teams dug out fit into your narrative, since you’re such an avid fan?? You watch all the games. U r honestly a joke
Only one can be a pitcher
Orioles are currently carrying 13 pitchers on active roster, after September call ups the Max allowed is 14, this comment is factually incorrect.
Can only add one pitcher.
They can’t both go to pitchers. The limit is 14 after 1 September.
Noooooooo. Hopefully Cano can step in and work that slider.
Damn just hope for a full recovery for the fella. Hopefully the O’s can find some depth to their relief even if it isn’t nearly the quality that Bautista brought.
Is this anything like “deGrom will be out for maybe 2-4 weeks” that we heard both in early 2022 and 2023?
We’ll let you know in 2025
That’s such a shame.
That ain’t good.
Overworked him just like Buck use to do with Britton. The more things change, the more they stay the same…
Agreed. For some reason they brought him in the Toronto series multiple times. Why did they treat that series like the Jays could hit? The Blue Jays are a trash team and of should rested Bautista for that series.
Why won’t water stop coming out of my eyeballs
2024 may be the main contention year, as Elias was alluding too.
Tommy John next? Buck is like Dusty Baker when it comes to being hard on pitchers. They both have the old school mentality when it comes to pitchers. Even when the pitcher is running on fumes, keep them in well past the time to pull them. The game has changed and most starting pitchers are meant to last 6 innings with 4 relievers to finish the game. Relievers are becoming backup starting pitchers. Buck and Dusty meanwhile, while ride the pitchers to injuries
Um, Brandon Hyde manages the Orioles.
I thought Buck was still in Baltimore. My mistake
Buck hasn’t managed them since 6 years ago.
@Pirates
understandable mistake. it’s easier to rant when you don’t know what you’re talking about.
there are downsides to that too though. @Davesg81 was pretty gentle in his correction. apparently, i could learn some politeness from him too
It happens. Sometimes I still think of the Brewers as an AL team and the Astros as an NL team.
At times I do too. I remember being Division rivals with the Astros.
Wheres all the mouth breathers saying “The orioles shouldnt have let him throw so hard” that were going after Ohtani and the Angels?
If only they made him throw 93!
It’ll be tough to make noise with Bautista in October. Sucks but there’s nothing you can do to prepare losing a guy like that.
Hopefully Cano can fill in. Really need a Wells, Fuji or Hall to step up and become a reliable bridge arm.
Without Bautista obviously. Cano has been great as a set up man but it’s not always automatic that the set up man becomes a great closer. Hopefully he does just that.
That’s disappointing, but hopefully it’s not too much of a setback and Bautista comes back as dominant as ever. Now would bea great time for Hall or Perez to step up. Wells coming back certainly helps.
Another article written by someone who doesn’t follow the O’s. The bullpen has not been an O’s strength. All year, it has been worse than the rotation – EXCEPT for Cano until June, and Bautista. In the rotation, Bradish is tied for the ERA lead in the AL with Gerritt Cole, Tyler Wells had the 2nd lowest WHIP in baseball prior to the ASB, and Kremer is an absolute gamer. Gibson has his moments as well. And while GrayRod got shelled in his first stint, he’s been VERY good since recall.
@King
except the good players on any bullpen, a bullpen is not good at all.
that’s great logic. posters make brilliant points except when they don’t.
“Another article written by someone who doesn’t follow the O’s. The bullpen has not been an O’s strength. All year, it has been worse than the rotation…”
Kinda ironic that somebody posts something like this and doesn’t recognize the O’s bullpen has been a strength of the team all season long. You don’t carry the 6th best bullpen ERA in all of MLB by accident or by sucking. The O’s bullpen has given up the fewest HRs of all MLB bullpens and they rank 2nd in strikeouts behind only San Francisco.
Oh, by the way, the O’s rotation ranks 13th in the Majors with a 4.04 overall ERA. The bullpen ERA is 3.57 — I think that means the bullpen is better..
misterb – I would say in terms of the eye test or actual effectiveness, the Orioles’ rotation is 4th best in the AL East. It’s also not as good as Minnesota, Texas, Seattle, Houston, and possibly LAA before Ohtani’s injury.
The bullpen ERA is inflated by a few huge blowups. I’d put them in the top 3 or 4 in MLB overall.
Omar – do you even follow the team?
Bradish and Wells have been the only two starters who have been above average all season. Bradish has maintained all season. Wells fell off (regression caught up). GRod has been above average since his call up but awful on the first stint. Gibson is below average. Kremer is trending toward average. Irvin is garbage.
All the main players in the bullpen have been above average to great especially Bautista and Cano. The bullpen is the reason why this club isn’t in third place.
Please get out of the 1980s and stop using ERA as the main indicator of effectiveness. Remember the league’s best defense is behind the mound, probably the league’s best defensive catcher is behind the plate and the Orioles have had luck on their side more often than not.
Oriole with injured wing, replaced by DL player, plus magic with Copperfield … News at 11
Pitch clock is destroying arms. Rob Mandred needs to be sued.
We’ll remember this time as when Cano became the permanent closer.
This sucks. It seems that my fabtasy baseball team is cursed. I have deGrom, Yordan Alvarez, Urias (traded), and they all happened to miss time. Now, this is the closer I gave up a lot to get. I should just announce everyone on my roster for MLB teams to avoid lol. Still somehow in 2nd/3rd out of 12 all year
And Mitch Garver too
@In Seager
if you league is a keeper league, can you pls post your roster so the Orioles’ FO can consider it when signing FA’s. lol
Doctor Boonedoggle disease has set in. First off, he’s got a BMI over 30. Second off, he’s already over 60 innings and we’re still in August. He’s too big and he’s been overused. Why do you think so many Yankee pitchers go down? Or if they survive, stink up the postseason? This is basic stuff. You need to carry less unnecessary weight and you need to be properly paced. Remember, the season is a marathon, so get players who can hold up, and don’t run them into the ground.
Felix Bautista is a very large human being.