Félix Bautista made his first injury rehab appearance yesterday at Double-A Chesapeake and was charged with three runs with three walks in one-third of an inning. His health and how he bounces back are more important than the results.

The minor leagues shut down today, and Bautista will unpack his bags Tuesday with Triple-A Norfolk in Durham.

Bautista hadn’t thrown a pitch in a competitive game at any level since July 20, 2025 in St. Petersburg. Three days later, he wasn’t able to enter a game at Progressive Field because of the discomfort in his right shoulder that led to surgery the following month on his labrum and rotator cuff. Dr. Neal ElAttrache handled the procedure in Los Angeles.

The Mountain crumbled in Cleveland. He was supposed to be warming in the bullpen, and interim manager Tony Mansolino received some bad news over the dugout phone.

“When I heard that ring, I turned to the person next to me and said, ‘That’s not good,” Mansolino said. “It turned out to be horrendous.”

Bautista’s latest update Friday afternoon, from in front of his locker, was exciting for a team trying to stay in the Wild Card race and hopeful that the 2023 All-Star and top American League reliever can provide a strong push.

Perhaps not at 101 mph, but. strong, nonetheless.

Bautista was otherworldly in ’23 with a 1.48 ERA, 0.918 WHIP and 33 saves in 56 appearance, and 110 strikeouts over 61 innings. He finished 11th in Cy Young voting but didn’t pitch after Aug. 25 due to a torn ligament in his elbow that required reconstructive surgery and shelved him for the entire 2024 season.

Who can forget him retiring the first two Rockies batters in the ninth while the crowd roared, spinning off to the first base side of the mound after throwing a 102.3 mph fastball, flexing his hand a few times and walking off with an athletic trainer?

“When the best closer in the game leaves the game, that’s never a good feeling,” manager Brandon Hyde afterward. “Hopefully he’s OK tomorrow.”

He wasn’t.

“I just hope that it’s nothing serious,” said shortstop Gunnar Henderson. “Hopefully it’s just like day-to-day.”

It wasn’t.

“I just saw him fall off kind of awkwardly,” Henderson added. “I just hope he gets better.”

He didn’t, at least until after his surgery. And after the Orioles conceded that Bautista couldn’t rehab the injury and participate in the Division Series. The thought crossed some minds but it was a longshot.

Bautista had a 2.60 ERA and 1.125 WHIP with 19 saves in 35 games last season. He struck out 50 in 34 2/3 innings but didn’t fully regain his velocity. He walked 23 batters, and command and feel could be an issue again next month after another surgery – the shoulder is viewed as more serious now than the elbow – and long layoff.

The Orioles will happily take whatever version they get, but 2023 always will be extra special.

“This is when Yennier (Cano) and Bautista were absolutely lights out, so I felt like if we got the game to the seventh, it was over, but especially the ninth inning,” Henderson said yesterday. “The way he was throwing the ball then and what we know he can get back to, even if people got on base we were like, ‘Well, people still have to hit the ball.’ It’s very hard to do that against him.”

I checked the roster from that season and this was the popular lineup that appeared in the search, in order of position rather than where they hit:

Adley Rutschman C
Ryan Mountcastle 1B
Adam Frazier 2B
Jorge Mateo SS
Ramón Urías 3B
Austin Hays LF
Cedric Mullins CF
Anthony Santander RF
Ryan O’Hearn DH

Mountcastle is the only player left in the organization and he’s on the 60-day injured list with a left foot fracture and strained oblique.

Of course, Gunnar Henderson should be the shortstop on this list, and Colton Cowser made his major league debut, but other position players on the club included Jordan Westburg, Aaron Hicks, James McCann, Ryan McKenna, Terrin Vavra, Joey Ortiz, Kyle Stowers, Heston Kjerstad, Josh Lester, Anthony Bemboom and Mark Kolozsvary. Westburg and Kjerstad remain in the organization. Westburg has missed the entire season after elbow surgery. Kjerstad has spent the entire season in Triple-A.

Starts on the pitching staff came from Kyle Gibson, Dean Kremer, Kyle Bradish, Grayson Rodriguez, Tyler Wells, Cole Irvin, Jack Flaherty, John Means and Keegan Akin. Bradish remains on the active roster, recovered from his own elbow surgery. Akin is out for the rest of the season after, yes, elbow surgery.

Cano led the Orioles with 72 appearances, but next among relievers were Cionel Pérez, Danny Coulombe, Mike Baumann, Bautista, Bryan Baker, Shintaro Fujinami, Wells, Austin Voth and Jacob Webb.

You can see where I’m going with this. Witnesses to Bautista’s dominant 2023 season have dwindled.

“It seems like he was just unhittable,” Wells said yesterday from the Rays clubhouse. “He’s bigger than I am and he’s throwing up 99-to-103. Just a super hoppy fastball and then the splitter to play off that. You didn’t know what you were gonna see that night as far as something cool or something you’ve just seen before that’s also really cool.

“Honestly, too, he was just a workhorse. He went out there, he answered the call every single time, and if he didn’t go out there in a save opportunity, it was one of the biggest moments of the game that we needed. We needed big outs. And on top of that, he did a couple multi-inning saves. I think it was a testament to his versatility, but also just how dominant he was and what he could do on a baseball field. It was just really impressive.”

“Every time you saw him get up and enter the game, like, immediate goosebumps,” Cano said through interpreter Brandon Quinones. “That’s what I remember. Just having that confidence that he would go in there and get the job done, that it would be really hard for anyone to score on him. And then, when they started playing his entrance, too, you would get super excited and it was obviously an emotional feeling watching him come into that entrance and seeing him get the job done. So yeah, it was super impressive.”

Bautista and Cano have become close friends. Making the ’23 All-Star team together was the chef’s kiss.

Having Bautista nearby again gives Cano another reason to smile, which comes easily to him anyway.

“Super happy, obviously,” Cano said. “I think we need him out there right now, someone who could hold down the ninth inning. I was able to go out there (Friday) and see him throw his bullpen, and I thought it was super impressive. I was like, ‘Wow, man, you look great.’ So he looks great and obviously we’ll be super happy to have him back soon.”