Baltimore Orioles Star Closer Primed for Impressive Season in Return From Injury

The Baltimore Orioles could be getting an absolutely massive season from their star closer this year.

Oct 7, 2023; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher Felix Bautista (74) looks on from the dugout in game one of the ALDS for the 2023 MLB playoffs against the Texas Rangers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images / Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

The Baltimore Orioles will have one of the most consequential returns from injury in all of baseball during this upcoming season.

After two dominant campaigns to begin his career in 2022 and 2023, Orioles shutdown man Félix Bautista missed the entire 2024 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, and his absence - among the absence of many others - was greatly felt by the pitching staff.

Now seemingly healthy and ready to go however, Bautista could be due for a massive comeback season in the back end of the Baltimore bullpen. Using Steamer projections from FanGraphs, David Adler of MLB.com projected ten players who are due for huge seasons in 2025 and Bautista made the list.

"Bautista is projected by Steamer for 26 saves, a 2.76 ERA and 90 strikeouts, with a 13.1 K/9 and 35.9% strikeout rate," Adler wrote. "If he's as good as the projections say, Bautista will be a huge difference-maker for an O's team looking to reach a third straight postseason."

Earlier this winter, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde spoke about how he plans on bringing Bautista back slowly and with caution early in the season, but also mentioned the fact his closer is getting very close to fully ready to go and is having a normal offseason, throwing in the upper 90s once again.

Bautista took the league by storm in his rookie season in 2022 with a 2.19 ERA and 15 saves in 65 appearances, striking out 88 batters in just 65.2 innings pitched. But his 2023 season was flat out ridiculous before his season came to an end in late August. In 56 appearances two years ago, Bautista had a 1.48 ERA and made 33 saves, though it was his strikeout numbers that were truly absurd.

Recording 110 strikeouts in just 61 innings pitched, Bautista was averaging an absolutely mind boggling 16.2 K's per nine innings.

Expecting The Mountain to come back and immediately start posting those same type of numbers again is probably unrealistic, but the boost the entire pitching staff gets by getting someone like that back cannot be understated.

The FanGraphs projections have Bautista at slightly worse numbers than he had in either of his first two seasons, but still what would be among the elite in all of baseball and a superb return to the game after being sorely missed in 2024.

Through all the bad injury luck for the Birds last season, missing Bautista may very well have been the most consequential of them all. Getting him back is going to go a long way towards Baltimore becoming the dominant force in the American League they were in 2023 once again.