The Orioles announced Thursday that closer Félix Bautista has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to right shoulder discomfort. Righty Kade Strowd has been recalled from Triple-A Norfolk to take his spot on the active roster.
Bautista, 30, is in his first season back on the mound after missing the 2024 campaign due to Tommy John surgery. He has, in many ways, picked up where he left off pre-injury and reclaimed his status as a high-end reliever. He’s tossed 34 2/3 innings, saved 19 games and logged a 2.60 ERA with a gaudy 35.2% strikeout rate.
Bautista’s command, however, isn’t as sharp as it was prior to surgery. He’s walked 16.2% of his opponents this year — way up from the 10% mark he recorded in 2022-23. Bautista has also changed up his pitch selection, scrapping his four-seamer in favor of a sinker. That’s led to an uptick in grounders (50.7% in 2025 compared to 39.9% in 2022-23) but fewer whiffs. Impressive as that 35.2% strikeout rate is, it pales in comparison to the superhuman 46.4% rate he posted in 2023. Bautista’s sinker, notably, is sitting 97.2 mph — a good bit shy of the 99.3 mph he averaged on his four-seamer prior to surgery.
The Orioles control Bautista via arbitration for another two seasons beyond the current one. He’s come up in trade rumblings over the past month, but not because the Orioles have been shopping him. Contending clubs around the league have long since zeroed in on the Orioles as a club that will function as a seller on the summer market and have hoped to pry Bautista loose. The O’s have reportedly listened out of due diligence, but general manager Mike Elias has been clear that he has every intention of competing in 2026. Bautista will play a prominent role in that effort. Elias has, accordingly, been focused primarily on discussing players who are “towards the end of their contracts,” as he put it last week.
Whatever slim chance there was of a team making an overwhelming offer to convince the O’s to part with Bautista was dashed with today’s placement on the injured list. Contending clubs would almost certainly have balked at the exorbitant asking price even for a healthy Bautista. Now that there’s uncertainty regarding the health of his shoulder, it’ll be next to impossible for the O’s to find someone willing to meet whatever sky-high price they’d set.
Bautista is set for an MRI to determine the extent of the discomfort, which arose yesterday while he was getting loose in the bullpen, interim manager Tony Mansolino told the Orioles’ beat (link via Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner). Mansolino added that he’s not yet sure who will step into closing duties while Bautista is sidelined. Right-hander Seranthony Dominguez and left-hander Gregory Soto have been next in the pecking order in terms of high-leverage work for the Orioles, but they’re both impending free agents who will likely be traded within the next week. Hard-throwing Yennier Cano has plenty of experience in high-leverage spots but is in the midst of an uneven season that saw him optioned to Triple-A for a bit earlier this summer.