In Baltimore, Mountain time returns in 2025

The last two Octobers, the Orioles have gone 0-5 in playoff games and three of those were decided by one run. A clutch hit here or a clutch out there might have made the difference.

The O’s did not have Félix Bautista available for any of those games in the late innings. He last pitched for the Orioles on Aug. 25, 2023 and had Tommy John surgery in October of 2023.

But in 2025, Mountain time returns in Baltimore.

It’s like they signed or added an All-Star reliever. Bautista was a 2023 All-Star, and that year finished 11^th in the AL Cy Young voting.

Now, knock on wood, he should be a full go from the first day of spring training in February. At that point he will be 16 months removed from his procedure.

Bautista’s rise to the majors was unexpected. At several points when he was on the farm for two different clubs, he seemed unlikely to even make the majors, much less become a top closer and All-Star.

He was the opposite of a fast mover, pitching as a pro for the first time on the Miami Marlins farm in 2013. On Jan. 15, 2015, they released him. He was not signed by any club until Aug. 4, 2016 and that was club was Baltimore. He was out there a long time for any team to sign.

In 2017 with the Orioles, he finally showed some true potential, pitching to a 2.01 ERA while lowering his walk-rate in the Dominican Summer League. But between the Marlins and Orioles, that was his fourth year in the DSL.

In 2018, for the first time, he would pitch as a pro in the United States and it was still a slow climb from there, in part because the pandemic cancelled the 2020 season in the minors.

But starting in 2021, for the first time, Bautista started moving fast. In fact, he began the 2021 season pitching for High-A Aberdeen in the South Atlantic League. The next season he would be pitching for the Orioles in the American League.

After seeing his career move at a glacial pace, he went from A-ball to the big leagues in 12 months.

Said Bautista in an early-season interview in 2022: “It’s very special for me to be here, after 10 long years in the minors. A lot of hard work went into that and just to be here today is special for me,” he said during an interview in Oakland with the help of team translator Brandon Quinones.

O’s skipper Brandon Hyde said then that Bautista’s rise to the majors was a success story for the Orioles player development operation.

“Absolutely. And he is a great story and hats off to our player development people for getting him to be able to pitch in big spots in the big leagues right now," Hyde said. "It’s fun to watch him. He’s a great kid. He’s fun to be around and everybody likes him. He throws 99 also, which helps, with a really good split. I’m enjoying watching him have success and I’ll continue to throw him out there in big parts of games.”

Little did anyone know just how well he would do.

But back to 2021, the minor league turning point for the right-hander. He was still walking way too many but a late-year gain in that department would carry into his MLB time the following season.

He began 2021 with Aberdeen pitching to an ERA of 1.20 in 11 games but walking 6.0 per nine. In 12 games at Double-A Bowie he had an ERA of 0.68 but with a whopping 7.4 walks per nine. At Triple-A Norfolk, his ERA was 2.45, he was throwing 100 miles per hour now and walking 4.4 per nine. Better and something the club could work with.

That command was even better in the majors. With the Orioles in 2022 he walked 3.2 per nine and that mark was 3.8 in 2023.

He had an ERA of 2.19 (ERA+ of 178) with the ’22 O’s along with a WHIP of 0.929 with 12.1 K/9. Then in 2023 his ERA was 1.48 (277 ERA+) with a 0.918 WHIP and 16.2 K/9.

Dominant. And very missed.

The now 29-year-old Bautista, the pitcher who spent four seasons in the Dominican Summer League and looked like he’d never throw enough strikes to make it, will be very welcomed back in Sarasota in February.