Orioles closer Félix Bautista has been out since August 26 after suffering an injury to the UCL in his throwing elbow. The O’s haven’t provided many specifics on the situation, but Bautista has continued to throw while on the injured list.
Baltimore general manager Mike Elias met with the beat this afternoon and provided a little more clarity. Elias noted the team isn’t closing the door on Bautista returning this year, saying that medical personnel believe the big right-hander won’t do further damage by throwing (via Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post).
Asked whether it was fair to describe the injury as a UCL tear, Elias initially agreed before clarifying “it’s probably best characterized as an acute or chronic injury to his ligament” (relayed by Jake Rill of MLB.com). That’s an alarming description of the issue. Elias acknowledged that surgery was a possibility but said the specific treatment program won’t be decided upon until after the season (via Rich Dubroff of Baltimore Baseball).
Bautista was stellar as a rookie a year ago and has cemented himself as one of the sport’s top late-game arms this season. Behind a triple-digit heater and a wipeout split, he has dominated opponents en route to a 1.48 ERA across 61 innings. Bautista has fanned a laughable 46.4% of batters faced while picking up whiffs on almost 21% of his pitches. Even if he doesn’t make it back this season, he’ll likely find himself on some Cy Young ballots.
Whether he can add to that breakout performance could have a major impact on the postseason race. The O’s are three games up on the Rays in the AL East. They’re trying to secure the division title and home field advantage through the American League playoff field. Even without Bautista, they’re in strong position to keep hold of the division with less than three weeks to go, but losing arguably the game’s best reliever would obviously deal some hit to their chances of making a deep postseason run.
The 28-year-old is a crucial player for Baltimore well beyond this season. He’ll only reach the two-year service threshold and is still controllable for four more years.
Considering that acute (sudden onset, often shorter duration) and chronic (slow-developing, long-lasting) are antonyms, that’s a pretty safe description.
It is “acute ON chronic” and not “or”
Ah, so it is – guess I need to start reading the linked source tweets instead of relying on the MLBTR translations. Anyway, here’s how the Baltimore Sun’s Nathan Ruiz explains it: “The Orioles are classifying the partial tear in Félix Bautista’s UCL as an ‘acute-on-chronic’ injury, which is medical speak for a sudden injury that is also the result of use over time. Typical of UCL injuries.”
I’m reading this as “Yes, he probably needs TJ surgery, but we need him, damn it. He can wait”.
Exactly.
If he does need TJ, hopefully he fares better than Gonsolin did pitching through it
They do need him, which is probably why they’re hoping a long rest will give him enough to be used in the playoffs, and then afterwards decide on a path for surgery.
It sounds insane to let him pitch.
Shut the guy down