Orioles closer Felix Bautista and starter Zach Eflin are done for the remainder of the season, interim manager Tony Mansolino announced to the team’s beat Tuesday (link via Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun). Eflin is undergoing a lumbar microdiscectomy procedure, and the news on Bautista is even more ominous. Mansolino revealed that his closer, who was originally placed on the IL with shoulder inflammation on July 24, has sustained a “significant shoulder injury.” The team is still in the process of formalizing a diagnosis and treatment plan. He has another appointment to evaluate the injury later this week.
It’s a brutal development for the 30-year-old Bautista, who’s in his first season back after missing the 2024 campaign due to Tommy John surgery. He’s posted excellent results, logging 34 2/3 innings of 2.60 ERA ball, though there have been some modest red flags in his broader profile. Bautista averaged 99.5 mph on his four-seamer before surgery but has scrapped that pitch entirely in favor of a sinker that’s sitting more than two miles per hour shy of that prior velo mark (97.2 mph average). Meanwhile, his already high 11% walk rate from 2023 has exploded to 16.2% in his return campaign.
The obvious hope is that Bautista can avoid undergoing a second major surgery. To be expressly clear, Mansolino did not suggest that shoulder surgery is presently being considered, though any time a team official describes a “significant” injury for a pitcher and second opinions are being sought, that type of fear is natural. Ideally, Bautista could take the remainder of the regular season and the offseason to rest and rehab ahead of the 2026 campaign, but the outlook will remain uncertain while the O’s gather additional opinions.
The Orioles control Bautista through the 2027 season. He’ll finish out the current season with exactly four years of major league service time. Bautista is earning $1MM this year and will be owed a raise in arbitration. Even if the injury impacts his availability for Opening Day 2026, the O’s are still all but assured to tender him a contract, given that he’d be affordably priced for the 2027 season as well.
As for Eflin, the forthcoming back surgery ends what’s been a nightmare season for the talented righty. The 31-year-old is in the final season of a three-year, $40MM contract originally signed with the Rays. He pitched to a 3.54 ERA in 353 innings over the first two seasons of the pact but has only made it to the mound 14 times this year due to back and lat injuries. He’s been rocked for a 5.93 ERA in 71 1/3 innings when healthy enough to pitch — his worst production since an 11-start run with the Phillies in 2017, before he’d established himself as a credible big league starter.
Eflin is slated to reach free agency for the second time in his career at season’s end. There’s no immediate timetable for his recovery, but ending a dismal season with a lower back surgery isn’t the way any free agent wants to head back to the open market. He’ll be relatively young for a second-time free agent who’s already signed one multi-year deal, with his 32nd birthday in April, but Eflin seems likely to be in line for a short-term deal that’ll demonstrate his health and allow him to get back to the market next winter.