Orioles closer Félix Bautista to miss 12 months because of shoulder surgery

Matt Weyrich, Baltimore Sun on Aug 20, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BALTIMORE — For all the injuries the Orioles have endured this season, none of them threatened to impact their 2026 roster. Until now.

Closer Félix Bautista underwent surgery on a torn rotator cuff and labrum in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the team announced. The right-hander is expected to miss the next 12 calendar months, a massive blow after he sat out the entire 2024 season recovering from Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery.

The 30-year-old recorded 19 saves with a 2.60 ERA in 35 games before injuring his shoulder warming up for an outing in late July. He was the Mariano Rivera American League Reliever of the Year Award winner in 2023, when he put up a 1.48 ERA and 33 saves before tearing his ulnar collateral ligament that August.

Bautista rose to national prominence behind an electric sinking fastball that routinely hit triple digits and an equally nasty splitter, striking out a stunning 46.4% of hitters in 2023. He was often called upon to convert multiple-inning saves and pitch on back-to-back days.

However, the elbow injury brought his 2023 season to a screeching halt. He tried to rehabilitate the torn UCL but ultimately underwent Tommy John in October of 2023 and never came close to returning to the mound at Camden Yards last year. Baltimore signed veteran closer Craig Kimbrel as a stopgap for the 2024 season but released him later that season amid a poor second half.

Bautista ramped up this spring just in time to make the opening day roster and resumed his closer duties — albeit with his workload managed early. Though he didn’t pitch on consecutive days until May 20 to 21 and never went more than an inning in a single outing, the Orioles began to use him more as the season progressed. He pitched on back-to-backs seven times over his final 21 appearances.

Now facing an uncertain future, Bautista isn’t likely to pitch in a game again until late in the second half of next season. The Orioles will go into this offseason with few bullpen arms locked into a roster spot — and none who could be reasonably expected to step in at closer.

Keegan Akin and Yennier Cano are the only proven major league relievers still left after the front office traded half its bullpen at the Aug. 1 deadline. The rest of their relief corps currently consists of fringy prospects and journeymen. While some of them have taken advantage of the opportunity thus far, Orioles’ executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias will still have several roster holes to address in the bullpen this winter.

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