Félix Bautista is inching closer to his return, but his status for the postseason remains up in the air. Manager Brandon Hyde recently spoke to reporters (including Nathan Ruiz of The Baltimore Sun) about his star closer, suggesting that the right-hander is running out of time to get back on the mound. It’s not that Bautista has suffered a setback, but he just hasn’t progressed quickly enough to give Hyde much confidence that he can return for the playoffs.
It’s a disappointing development for the Orioles, who are set to embark on their first postseason run since 2016. The 28-year-old has emerged as one of the most dominant relief arms in the game, with a 1.85 ERA across his first two seasons in the majors.
In happier news, Ryan Mountcastle is nearing his return to Baltimore’s lineup. As Ruiz reports, the first baseman took batting practice before this evening’s game against the Nationals. Hyde suggested he could be reinstated tomorrow; if not, he should be back on the field sometime this week.
Here’s some more news from around the American League…
- The Twins expect Carlos Correa will be ready to play in the AL Wild Card series, and indeed, it’s possible he could be back by the final series of the regular season. Manager Rocco Baldelli told reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Star Tribune) that the star shortstop could rejoin the team this weekend in Colorado. Correa has been playing through plantar fasciitis for most of the year, and the question is not whether his injury has healed, but simply if he has rested enough to be able to manage the pain throughout the playoffs. The Gold Glove winner has been taking groundballs in recent days, and he claims to be feeling better.
- Red Sox catcher Reese McGuire left tonight’s game against the Rays with a left thumb contusion. It’s not a particularly serious diagnosis, but still, it’s not impossible this marks the end of McGuire’s season. The lefty batter hit .271/.314/.365 in 69 games as a backup catcher for Boston. He will be arbitration-eligible for the second time this winter.
- The Angels have placed starting pitcher Patrick Sandoval on the 15-day IL. To replace him on the active roster, they have recalled Kolton Ingram from Triple-A Salt Lake. Sandoval exited his start last night against the Rangers with tightness in his right oblique, and the injury has proven to be serious enough to end his season six days early. This marks Ingram’s third fleeting call-up of the 2023 season; in 4 1/3 innings for the big league club, he has given up five runs on seven hits. However, his numbers are much better in the minors, where the 26-year-old boasts a 2.95 ERA in 61 innings pitched.
Completely left out that Felix threw a simulated game on the mound today. It’s not disappointing, I don’t think most people following expected him back. It’s more that if he’s not back this week, he might not be in for the playoffs, which was always a pie in the sky hope. If anything, today was encouraging news.
Agreed. Hyde addressed this in pregame interview and simply said the next step is to see how he feels today after throwing the sim game yesterday.
The time question is whether they want him to throw a live inning this weekend.
Hopefully the birds can clinch the division today or tomorrow so they can get bautista an inning in a low leverage situation.
Reese has gotta practice his grip strength with his left hand more when in his car at parking lots.
… Bautista threw a sim game today. How is that a disappointment?
Yeah I think MLBTR read too far into those comments
JHad plantar fasciitis a few years back and could barely walk. Not sure how anyone plays baseball all season with that injury.
May be wrong, but I think that is the 37th Angel’s player that has hit the IL this season.
Did you have a world class medical staff caring for you 24/7? Professional athletes don’t live in our reality. Correa probably has cryotherapy, hyperbaric chambers, massage, physical therapy, and anti-inflammatory meal plans. And if he doesn’t, then he should.
It doesn’t really matter though, even with a healthy Correa, the Twins won’t win a post season series.
At least it won’t be at the hands of the Yankees for a change. But I agree with you – if MIN makes it past the first round it will be a miracle.
Wonder what the chances , looking around at possibilities, Trout and Ohtani on same team but not Angels. Need money and trade capital to make it happen. Probably have to take Rendon contract too and hope for the best. Prepared to add 125 mill there , maybe u trim elsewhere , maybe you absorb. ? Stevie Cohen ? Yanks ? Mariners ? Jays? Red Sox ? Padres ? Texas? Who’s got cash to burn if they want. ?
Edp007 = Interesting question. Boston should trade Devers and Verdugo to LAA for Trout and Drury. That gives them the good defensive 3B who can hit and Trout is only 32 next years with 7 years at roughly 35MM so about $6MM a year more than Devers but 3 years less..
That allows you to move Yoshida to DH and Trout can share some time there with Yoshida. Drury at 3B, Story at SS, TBD at 2B, Casas at 1B, Trout, Rafaela and Duran in the outfield.
The Red Sox could afford this deal if they are willing to take a chance on Trout.
Trying to sign Ohtani is feasible if you can fix the holes in the team without adding much money like I have suggested above. That allows Boston to go into the 40s or 50s for Ohtani. Boston needs two SPs so unless Sale is good again next year or they can trade Sale and use his money to get an ace signing Ohtani would mean more youngsters in the line-up if Sale is still around and not able to pitch.
In my opinion there’s zero chance the Angels trade Mike Trout. Zero.
A key indicator would be that they did not trade Ohtani at the trade deadline and now they’ll let him walk for nothing.
So trading Trout while he still has great value is not something the Angels have in mind. They’ll watch him get old and continue to fill the seats in Anaheim.
Not sure why this is even brought up here? I looked through the item above and there’s no mention of a Trout trade possibility, or what am I missing?
Okay I went back a dozen articles and see there’s a Trout discussion regarding meeting with ownership in the offseason.
He states he “does this every year” and he has a no trade clause. Also states that he’s not asking out, and doesn’t plan to.
I see where this comes from now. Got it. Good discussion. Mike Trout would be amazing for any team to acquire but as I mentioned, there’s no way the Angels trade Mike Trout. Zero chance.
Gary – Trout doesn’t have great value when you take his contract into consideration. I think he’s now one of those players teams will be happy to get 120 games from each year. And if he starts splitting time at DH that would decrease his value even more. Hate to say it, but he’s now the position player equivalent to Chris Sale except with a much longer contract.
Fever, you’re probably right. Another reason why I don’t think they’ll approach the subject of a trade with him because they’re 3 years too late, at least.
Gary – I was proposing it because I thought it would help both teams. It’s highly unlikely to happen but Fever is right, Trout is an albatross contract that for me is simply less of an albatross than Devers since the term of the contract is shorter. Trout would bring fans to the game to help fill the seats again AND he’s from the Northeast so being closer to his roots might help him play more games per year.
Fixing both Devers and Yoshida in a single move to me is what makes this suggestion so appealing. The defense jumps up enormously while the offense might take a hit but the team appeal will jump and maybe a change of scenery will help Trout remember his greatness.
Troll, I replied more to the original post above yours and not yours. You were reacting to what he wrote and didn’t really initialize the thought of a Trout trade.
Probably 0%. Whoever ends up trading for Trout is going to want to DH him a lot to get him through a whole season. Then again knowing the Angels they will blow it again and get nothing for him as he starts getting season long injuries in spring training.
I get these three guys confused for some reason: Rob Refsnyder, Robbie Grossman, and Michael Tauchman. Let’s see? They’re all Caucasian platoon outfielders of roughly average to mediocre outputs. Maybe I’m missing something. The bland leading the bland.
Rob Refsnyder is not Caucasian, he’s Korean American you ignorant son-of-a-B! Oh wait…
Oops my bad, you’re right about that. I knew that too, but it’s been so long since I’ve seen him play last that I glossed over it. Thank you for the correction.
Haha definitely just wanted the low hanging fruit there.
LOL no worries, I understand.
Ignorant – If he identifies as Caucasian that’s all that matters.
Lars Nootbar enters the chat
Bautista will be on the postseason roster. I think this is all a work by the Orioles to down play his readiness but the fact that he threw a sim game and they did not report any problems means that they are going to trot him out there. And what a huge lift that would be to the Orioles bullpen!
Wells too?
Wells looked great tonight.
After 158 games the Red Sox are 76-82 for a .481 winning percentage. That is the 12th worst record in baseball with 4 games left. Should BAL like TB sweep them they will finish with a .469 winning percentage and could move up to the 9th worst record meaning the 9th pick in the 2024 draft. Bloom’s final contribution is yet another high draft pick 9th to 12th. At least he was consistent in providing great draft picks!!
A few other tidbits of information. They have played 51 series so far and have a record of 23-25-3 with September being their worst month 1-7 in series so far. This month Boston plays 19 of it’s 52 games against the AL East. Before SEP their record in the AL East was 19-14. This month they are 3-12 against the AL East so far with four games left in BAL against the AL leading Orioles. Clearly, many thought this team could compete with the AL East teams based on the first 5 months of scattered games against them but in the end there is a big gap between BOS and the top 3 AL East teams and a smaller gap between BOS and NYY. The new GM needs to fix the defense and get two starters if they want to compete in 2024.