Orioles right-hander Félix Bautista underwent Tommy John surgery in October but required further medical attention today. The righty “had right elbow debridement and an ulnar nerve transposition today with Dr. Keith Meister in Dallas,” per an announcement from the Orioles. “We do not anticipate any changes in his overall Tommy John recovery timeline and we still expect him to return for the 2025 season.”
The club provided some more info to reporters, including Jake Rill of MLB.com, who relayed that the procedures were necessary to clean up some scar tissue and that moving the nerve freed it from compression. It appears that his ulnar collateral ligament, which is replaced in Tommy John surgery, is still healing well.
Bautista was already slated to miss the entire 2024 season, as the rehab process from TJS generally takes longer than a year. Assuming the club’s assessment of the current situation is correct, then this will have no impact on his previous status, though some will naturally worry to hear about more work being done in the throwing elbow of someone as talented as Bautista.
Through his first two seasons, he has made 121 appearances with a tiny 1.85 earned runs allowed per nine innings. His 10% walk rate is a tad high but he’s paired that with a massive 40.4% strikeout rate, racking up 48 saves in the process.
Around the time of his first surgery, he and the club agreed to a two-year deal to cover both the 2024 and 2025 seasons, paying him $1MM in each. He would have been eligible for salary arbitration for the first time between those two seasons but missing the entire 2024 campaign would have prevented him from earning a raise commensurate with his talents. He will be eligible for arbitration for the 2026 and 2027 seasons before he would be slated for free agency.
The righty “had right elbow debridement and an ulnar nerve transposition today with Dr. Keith Meister in Dallas,” per an announcement from the Orioles. “
And he now has no arm, so he will become a Lefty…..and strangely enough, he will be back in 2025
i don’t get it
Some procedure. Who needs a third elbow?
Wow
O’s should approach Pirates about Bednar
They should’ve signed Aroldis Chapman for his $10.5mm instead of Kimbrel for his $13mm, IMO.
Chapman looks cheap at that price.
I’d feel a lot more confident with Chapman on the mound in the ninth inning than kimbrel.
Do you watch baseball?
Chapman is a woman beater that has no place on an upstanding team that doesn’t want a toxic clubhouse
sTop ThroWInG SHade aT A blAcK PlAyeR
He talks nice about it.
Aw, how cute, defending a wife beater because I defended a guy who has no history of steroid use from nonsensical anonymous “Liberalsteve” allegations.
Liberalsteve says this stuff to get a rise out of people everyday. Can we avoid this obvious trap?
JimEdmondsHOF must have joined his trolling club too.
He shouldn’t have taken those steroids. Killing his body
He might be, lots of Dominicans are using. However, have you seen his throwing mechanics? They are inarguably terrible. Guys with clean mechanics like deGrom destroy their elbows, now imagine a guy with this sort of windup.
Shame on you. Every time I see your comments they’re throwing shade and lies at a black player. Bautista has always been a hard thrower. You’re pathetic.
And?
Lol. You are a more loony lefty than I am.
1. Zero proof I have only done this to black athletes
2. confirmation bias on such little data
3. Huge white guilt
You went 3 for 3!
Dominicans are part of the carribean. If you look at the trade winds and understand what the color black means 90% of the Caribbean including north Eastern South America are black. They speak whatever language the island/country they grew up in speaks. Spanish, Dutch, French……
Scar tissue that I wish you saw…With the birds of Cher, it’s a lonely view.
Push me up against the wall
Young Kentucky girl in a push-up bra
“Cher” instead of “share” because she babysat Kiades(sp?) during his youth?
Sounds bad but I had this same procedure done; far less painful, complicated, and serious than his original TJS
Yeah this is way less complicated than attaching and having to stretch out a new ligament. The additional scar tissue and just how much I’d say is bigger factor here. Any incision regardless of good the surgeon leaves some degree of scar tissue. That tissue pushes and occupies space in a way that can often restrict movement, hopefully in his case scar tissue isn’t gonna be a detriment to movement or feeling in any way.
Oof. Probably out until mid-2025 or 2026.
Clofreesz, if you read what is stated above, this procedure doesn’t change his recovery time line. Bautista is expected back in time for the 2025 season. No mention of 2026. I know it’s a lot of words and no pictures but make the attempt. It’s not that difficult. For most. Oof!
They say they are expected to have him back for mid to late 2025. They aren’t saying that he will come back. Anything can happen with injuries, so I have this range here when he’s expected to come back. Ain’t saying he ain’t coming back in 2025, but there is a possibility that he doesn’t. I love the Mountain. He’s a strikeout machine and virtually unhittable.
Who from the Orioles has said his return is expected to be mid-late 2025?
The answer is no one. Elias and the team have said they expect him to return for the 2025 season. Big difference. No one from the Orioles or his physician have said any of those things you said.
No. Please read. 2025 is his return date, always has been. Not mid, not late.
Sometimes I wonder if my brain is closer to 80 than 30.
Lol. Sometimes we read things we expect. At least you have the good humor to admit it. 🙂
PS: I had to re-read the article to make sure there wasn’t some mention of “mid-2025” in it. psheww!!!
Maybe the O’s can get Bednar from the Pirates since they won’t be using him?
Kimbrel has replaced Bautista as a temporary closer. Giving up top prospects for Bednar is risky right now. Wait until trade deadline.
They will. Aroldis is probably a setup man since Bednar is a top-5 closer in the league.
Besides injured closers, probably Hader, Clase, Edwin Diaz, Romano, Williams and Pressly in that top tier with Bednar.
Almost there is Alexis Diaz, Iglesias, Fairbanks and – hear me out – Mason Miller.
Quite a bold statement for Mason Miller. He’s pretty young and has a great fastball. He still needs to get his command under control.
just watch…
Naming Mason Miller, Ryan Pressly, Pete Fairbanks, and Raisel Iglesias ahead of Andres Munoz is disrespectful to Munoz.
Not to mention Jhoan Duran.
Duran has to be up there. Tanner Scott would have to be in the discussion if he comes out like he did in ‘23. As surprising as that is for me to say.
good addition with Munoz.
Another good addition with Duran.
And Camilo Doval… He’s going to be another great one!
Doval seems like he’s already there.
nice add with Mason Miller
Updated list by popular demand/some convincing.
Top tier: Hader, Clase, E Diaz, Romano, Williams, Pressly
2nd tier: A Diaz, Iglesias, Duran, Fairbanks, Doval, Munoz, Miller
Solid list. I’m saying all of this off the top of my head, but these would be my initial reactions:
Agree that Hader, E. Diaz, and Williams are tier 1, but I’d remove Romano, Clase, and Pressly.
Romano, I think, is solidly at the top of tier 2, and while Clase’s K rate could easily bounce back, I’m still a bit concerned, especially when combined with his increasing H/9. As for Pressly–he took a pretty sizeable step back last season. He’s still good, but I think he’s tier 2, maybe even tier 3 now. I would move Duran, Doval, and Munoz into tier 1. I’d move Miller down to tier 3 until his track record is longer, but he’s got a lot of promise.
Anyone like Scott Barlow?
4.37 ERA doesn’t close to cut it as a closer. 2021 and 2022 were nice with KC (2.42, 2.18) but to be in this consideration you need either a) to have proven you can handle the pressure or b) have nasty stuff. Top tier guys have both, second tier generally have one, Barlow has none.
Besides he won’t close in Cleveland long as Clase is around.
Oh, I realize he won’t close over class. I meant would Barlow be a decent trade target for the Orioles this year, considering they could use a reliever with a good K rate
Oh, my bad. Yes at the deadline
…that should read, “he won’t close over Clase.” Damn voice-to-text!
I’m no doctor or physical therapist, but I can’t imagine this is meaningless news despite the belief that he’ll still be ready by 2025.
Never mind. My wife who actually is in the medical field says I’m very likely wrong, so excuse my ignorance.
Your wife should be on here commenting instead.
j/k. I like that you replied to your own comment with the info. 🙂
You aren’t wrong! She could have contributed much more than I did haha
Bautista’s injury is such a huge loss for the team, I really wish they would’ve done more to address it, and go after a big strikeout guy. Bautista really showed his value in extra inning games. He could just strike everyone out, so there was much less of a chance of teams advancing runners on him via cheap contact. Cano isn’t a strikeout guy so teams could make soft contact and advance the runner from second each time, and score on two contact outs. Hopefully they can get something good from Kimbrel, heard they may be working to tweak some things with him. They continued to play well without Bautista last year, but it doesn’t discount what he did before he got hurt.
Would’ve loved to have kept Hall for the bullpen. Think that we’ll see someone come in @ the deadline. Elias might find a gem by then though.
I wouldn’t sleep on McDermott being a key contributor at some point to the pen. Seth Johnson might factor in as well.
If Hall hasn’t overcome his control issues it isn’t likely he instantly turns things around in 2024. I have no doubt the Brewers want him to become a starter in a perfect world but don’t be shocked if they start talking of returning him to the bullpen to become Josh Hader v2.0 sometime after the all-star break.
Yeah. He’s exciting to dream on a starter but I think he’s just going to be a really good reliever.
Would’ve loved to have been able to get Burnes with another prospect that didn’t really factor into the ‘24 club. But we paid the price and got him.
DL issued zero walks over his last 10 appearances in 2023 spanning 9 innings. Maybe he is heading in the right direction.
Liked “Seth Johnson might …”
McDermott looks like more of a natural high-K reliever, at least for the short-term. The Orioles need a pitcher for extras with the zombie runner who can stack Ks.
Love “… extras with the zombie runner who can stack Ks”. Spicoli from FT at RH couldn’t have said it any better!
Kimbrel the closer!
If Tyler Wells isn’t in the rotation and Kimbrel gets off to a bad start, I would not be surprised with Wells being the closer with Cano and Kimbrel sharing set-up duties!