Returning Baltimore Orioles Star Left Out of Top 10 Reliever Rankings

The Baltimore Orioles star will have to earn his way back into the elite reliever conversation.

Aug 28, 2023; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Orioles relief pitcher Felix Bautista (74) sits in the dugout during the eighth inning against the Chicago White Sox at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. | Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

The Baltimore Orioles were without their star closer last year, and his absence was felt in a major way.

Can he now come back and re-establish himself as one of the best in the league?

ESPN's Buster Olney recently released his ranking of the 10 best relief pitchers in all of baseball. Missing from the ranking was Orioles star Felix Bautista, who instead found himself in the "honorable mentions" category.

When he was last healthy in 2023, Bautista was undoubtedly near the top of that list.

It is fair to be wary of a reliever coming back from an elbow surgery that kept him out for an entire year. He can also just as easily find himself back near the top of the list with another season of dominance.

Baltimore is actually fairly lucky they ended up with a few years of team control. Bautista was originally signed as an international free agent by the Miami Marlins back in 2012.

He never really got going with them and they released him in 2015. That allowed the Orioles to swoop in and sign him to a minor league deal a year later. Within a few seasons, he was already playing much better baseball.

The flamethrowing righty had a late start to his MLB career - a 27-year-old rookie campaign - but he wasted no time establishing himself as a great pitcher.

He had a 2.19 ERA over 65.2 innings of work with a 12.1 K/9 and 0.929 WHIP in 2022.

With that fantastic campaign under his belt, expectations rose, but Bautista surpassed them in 2023.

A sign of a great relief season is still ending up with some votes for the AL Cy Young. He finished 11th, but that was the best for a reliever that year.

He earned those votes with a 1.48 ERA over 61 innings with 33 saves, 0.918 WHIP and 16.2 K/9. Baltimore had a 49-7 record in games he pitched in.

While he didn't win the Cy Young, he made an All-Star team, was named to the All-MLB First Team and was named the AL Reliever of the Year.

A late elbow injury that resulted in Tommy John surgery kept him out for all of 2024.

The Orioles got a glimpse of life without Bautista and will never want to go back.

Craig Kimbrel was signed to supplement the loss and he had just a 5.33 ERA, getting cut before the season ended.

Now, Bautista is back and will have the chance to join the conversation of elite relief pitchers once again.