Orioles Star Reliever Worked on New Cutter During Injury Recovery

Dealing with a major injury like an elbow reconstruction can leave players with an abundance of free time to experiment with different grips and the feel of the baseball. Baltimore Orioles closer Felix Bautista can confirm this.

Bautista, who has not pitched in a game since 2023, has decided that his upper-90s sinker and his explosive splitter were not enough to bring back to the table this spring.

Sometimes it takes a coach or simply observing teammates throw their pitches to start wondering, "What did they do to make the ball move like that?" Both scenarios occurred for Bautista when he watched former teammate Corbin Burnes throw his patented cutter, leading him to contemplate how he could incorporate a similar pitch into his repertoire.

When a player of Bautista's caliber is working on something new, the rest of the bullpen takes notice. Soon after, teammate Yennier Cano was trying to figure out how to make his ball spin in the right direction.

In steps Orioles’ pitching coach Drew French, sharing his insights on the cutter with both relievers.

“Both of these guys ran with the idea of, how can we be better against lefties? But mainly for Cano. And that’s kind of what he came up with,” French said to Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner (paid subscription required). “We think it can be really valuable for him. You can’t take too much away from spring at this point, but when the real bullets begin to fly, you’ll begin to have a better understanding of what it is.”

Cano has struggled to get inside on left-handed hitters. He doesn’t use his slider against lefties, so every pitch goes away from them. The cutter could prevent lefties from leaning out over the plate, thus keeping them honest.

“I think it’s a pitch that will help defend me on the inner half, just because my sinker and changeup move away, and I don’t really throw my slider too much against lefties,” Cano said through team interpreter Brandon Quinones. “It’ll just give them a different look.”

Bautista’s repertoire is already strong, as he doesn’t face the same challenges with splits. However, adding a pitch with a similar spin to his sinker, while featuring horizontal break away from right-handers and a velocity drop of four to six mph, could keep hitters off balance.

“Really, with that pitch, all I want to do is change their perception,” Bautista said through Quinones, “and the way that they’re going to see different pitches.”

While Bautista got his idea from Burnes, French chuckled at the similarities.

“On paper, it’s really unique for Félix,” French said. “It comes from the heavens, and it actually is cutting and it has a significant amount of backspin, too. It’s sort of on par with vintage Kenley [Jansen], if you just look at movement in a vacuum. But it’s obviously a different arm slot, a different body, same part of the game usually. Kenley’s primary fastball is that pitch, and Félix has the back-spun 100; that’s the primary fastball.”

Historically, Bautista has relied on a mix of sinkers, splitters, and occasional sliders in a 70%/20%/5% ratio. This spring, he has thrown a few cutters: two on March 10, one to each side. The average velocity was down 4.7 mph, and the shift in horizontal break — from +5.9 inches into a right-hander to -2.6 inches away from a right-hander — resulted in some off-balance swings.

“We’ve seen Félix use it to both bat sides. We’ve seen some out-in-front swings,” French said. “But we also know he’s not Félix yet. He’s not back to what the ’23 version was. I think, when all that stuff rounds itself into form, we’ll have a better idea of what it’ll be for him, just inside his identity as a pitcher.”

If and when Bautista returns to maxing out his sinker at 100+ mph, the addition of the cutter may not be fair to hitters. He would have three pitches with reverse spins that are similar enough yet feature completely different velocities and movements.

Bautista aims to be more than just great. He is focused on getting healthy and returning even better than he was previously.

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