Mountcastle on Bautista: “He’s our guy, he’s the rock of that bullpen, and we’re just praying for a fast recovery"

Players walked into a brightly lit clubhouse yesterday feeling as though they were in the dark.

Félix Bautista left the previous night’s game one strike away from his 34^th save, accompanied by head athletic trainer Brian Ebel. Didn’t bother testing the elbow with a warmup toss. Grimaced, spun, flexed the hand and exited.

They headed home unsure of his status, and arrived in the same state of concern and confusion. He told them that he wasn’t in pain. It came in a flash on his 102.3 mph fastball, between the elbow and biceps.

Bautista woke up feeling fine, but a series of tests revealed an injury to his ulnar collateral ligament. Exactly what no one in the organization wanted to hear. Anything related to the UCL conjures images of Tommy John surgery and a lost 2024 season.

We aren’t there yet, but we knew more by the afternoon than when the doors opened much earlier.

“Obviously, he means everything to the club, if you pick an MVP up to this point,” said first baseman Ryan O’Hearn. “But I don’t know what the deal is yet. I don’t know what’s come out. I didn’t check (X). But we wait and hear what the damage is and pray for the best and see what happens, and we’ve got to go from there.

“At this point, I’m still hoping that it’s something minor and he’ll be back whenever the time is right and we’ll have him down the stretch. But obviously, can’t say enough about what Félix means to the team.”

They talk about him as a dominant All-Star closer and as a good friend. A tremendous story on the mound and through his journey to step on one in the majors – and to stay there after the Marlins released him back in January 2015 out of the Dominican Summer League.

Hadn’t pitched for a full-season affiliate, didn’t reach A-ball until 2019, when he averaged nine walks per nine innings.

This was the summer of Félix. But baseball life is just as cruel as the other types.

There wasn’t an alarming dip in velocity that hinted at a serious injury. Triple-digit heat followed by the ice cold reality that the club would need a group effort to replace him.

Makes sense for a man of his stature.

What went through Ryan Mountcastle’s mind when he saw Ebel and manager Brandon Hyde hustling to the mound with Bautista’s back turned to it?

“Nothing good,” he said.

“He’s our guy, he’s the rock of that bullpen, and we’re just praying for a fast recovery. Not really sure what’s going on yet. Just got here. But hoping for the best.”

Still in the dark until Hyde gathered his players for a pregame meeting.

“I just feel for the guy,” Hyde said. “I love the guy so much that it’s hard to watch somebody in pain like that.”

Emotional more so than physical at that point.

“He needs our support right now,” Hyde said. “He’s loved by the guys in there, so I just wanted them to know what was going on.”

They needed to hear it from Hyde. To have some facts to back up what they saw Friday night. The Mountain crumbling before their eyes.

“It’s definitely a sight you don’t want to see, especially when he’s throwing as well as he does,” said rookie Gunnar Henderson. “It’s definitely a tough blow, but I feel like all year somebody’s stepped up, and just hoping for somebody to do that.”

Yennier Cano, the All-Star setup man with five of the team’s 42 saves, is the obvious successor if the job required only one man. Keep in mind that the bridge weakens when the line moves, as we witnessed last summer after the Jorge López trade.

There’s a sense now that the bullpen as a whole is stronger in 2023 and better equipped to handle change, especially with Cionel Pérez getting back to form, Danny Coulombe and Jacob Webb looking like they could rank among executive vice president/general manager Mike Elias’ finest acquisitions and the pending arrival of Tyler Wells from Triple-A Norfolk.

DL Hall is here, and he’s a weapon if he’s throwing strikes, as he did last night. A description that also fits Shintaro Fujinami.

“I think adding Fuji and Webb and some of these guys at the deadline was huge, and just, next man up,” Mountcastle said. “Excited to see who fills that role.”

“Full confidence,” said Kyle Bradish. “We’ve got more than capable arms down there. … Next man up, big arms down there. We can’t replace him, but just got to fill that gap.”