Felix Bautista, coming off another major surgery, and his second in less than two years, took the mound for AA Chesepeake Sunday afternoon and still cut an imposing figure.
But this was very much a closer on the rebuild.
Nothing about this outing, against a weak AA lineup, looked like what we have come to exect from the former All Star. He pitched the first inning rather than entere later, and could not get through that inning, fell behind just about every batter he faced (there were five) and then departed to a loud ovation from a sparse crowd before the clock has stuck 1:15 in the afternoon. They played some of his walk-up accoutrements – audio clips from “The Wire” and such – but Bautista is clearly a long ways from being ready to get batters out in MLB as the Orioles (63-68) try to jostle for the final Wild Card spot.
The plan was for him to quickly move up to Norfolk, but that feels ambitious. It’s natural to expect things to be less than a smooth operation with Bautista suffering an elbow injury during the 2023 season, struggling with his control and experiencing dips in his velocity after his return in 2025 and then needing repairs to his rotator cuff and a torn labrum in his powerful right shoulder, which would require a 12-month recovery.
Reaching this point was an accomplishment, as the 6-foot-8, 280 mountain-of-a-man seemed to understand. Smiling as he left the stadium in the middle of the first inning and signing autographs on the way out, he seemed comforted by being in a game setting again after so many months of arduous rehab, again. But Bautista was basically non-competitive against a lineup a bevvy of young hitters who Baysox pitchers shutdown for the ensuing eight innings.
Bautista was simply unable to replicate his delivery and release point and struggling just to throw a strike.
Bautista needed eight pitches before walking the leadoff hitter. It was a sign of what was to come. He got his first out on a first-pitch flyout and the only base hit he surrendered was basically a check swing from Sebin Cabellos, but Bautista could not harness his command.
Everything was coming out high, he was flying open and when Bautista was clearly trying to get over top of the ball more, the offerings were in the dirt and not close to inducing a swing from the San Francisco Giants modest AA lineup. He threw 22 pitches and 12 were balls and quite a few were balls out of his hand that were never going to invite a swing.
Bautista, 31, got only two whiffs – swing and miss – in the entire outing, and one was as 94 mph sinker that was right over the plate and could have been mashed. On a stadium radar gun that tends to run hot – I saw Tanner Scott hit 104 at Price George’s Stadium before and “sit” around 103 for an inning and DL Hall light up 100 from the left side and Grayson Rodriguez would pop at 102 – Bautista was peaking around 97.
He threw five straight balls at one point, and even after a trip to the mound from the coaching staff he was still wild. The fact that Bautista was even throwing at all in any sort of competitive environment was a testament to his will and determination. But this is someone who could destroy MLB batters with two nasty pitches and routinely sit above 100 during multi-inning saves, and that version of him might not exist anymore, frankly.
It wasn’t the norm after the Tommy John surgery and before the shoulder gave out, and counting on him next season seems naïve. Orioles failed baseball exec Mike Elias gave struggling closer Ryan Helsley an outsized contract over the winter to try to replace Bautista. Helsley quickly broke down, pitching just 15 innings and could perhaps return from the IL next month, but the Orioles will be stuck with him next season at $14M because no way is he opting out.
Bautista came out of nowhere in 2022 as a very late-blooming minor league arm and from 2022-2023 struck out a ridiculous 198 batters in 126 2/3 innings. The Orioles paid Bautista $2.25M this season to avoid arbitration and he has one year of team control remaining. Being able to build anything in the late summer for 2027 would be great, but labor issues coiuld alter the complexion of the next MLB season.
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