The city of Baltimore is holding its collective breath right now over the status of Felix Bautista.
Bautista, the Orioles’ stud closer, was forced to exit Friday’s game against the Colorado Rockies due to apparent injury. After landing off to his left on the delivery of a 102 mph fastball, Bautista had to walk off with a trainer in the middle of the at-bat.
Here is the video of the sequence in which Bautista apparently got hurt.
Danny Coulombe came in to close out the game for Bautista, needing just one pitch to get the strikeout and seal a 5-4 win for the Orioles.
Baltimore manager Brandon Hyde said ominously after the game that the 2023 All-Star Bautista had “arm discomfort” and was still being evaluated, per Orioles reporter Luke Jones.
It is always a big concern whenever A) a pitcher has to leave a game before completing the at-bat and B) the term “arm discomfort” is mentioned. Even worse is that Bautista has been maybe the best reliever in baseball this year. He is tied for the AL lead with 33 saves and owns a regal 1.49 ERA with 16.3 strikeouts per nine innings.
Bautista has been so good that he has even pitched himself into the AL Cy Young conversation. Although Bautista probably will not win the award (with division foes Gerrit Cole and Kevin Gausman looking the likely favorites), he is firmly in the conversation and actually places first right now in ESPN’s AL Cy Young Predictor tool.
The Orioles have other high-quality arms in their bullpen including Coulombe, Yennier Cano and recent addition Jacob Webb. But at an AL-leading 80-48, the Orioles have legitimate World Series hopes this year. They might not go very far without having Bautista around to close out games for them, which would be a serious shame given how entertaining the O’s have been.
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