Felix Bautista to have Tommy John Surgery, likely to miss all of 2024

[wildcard]

8 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

What’s the play/angle/reason for signing him now? 

They did the same thing when John Means went down last spring.  They signed him to a two year contract for 2022 and  2023.   It shows loyalty to a core player when he is injured.  

Edited September 30, 2023 by wildcard

[emmett16]

Just now, wildcard said:

They did the same thing when John Means when down last spring.  They signed him to a two year contract for 2022 and  2023.   It shows loyalty to a core player when he is injured.  

Got it.  What I assumed.  Thanks for the clarification. 

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, wildcard said:

They did the same thing when John Means when down last spring.  They signed him to a two year contract for 2022 and  2023.   It shows loyalty to a core player when he is injured.  

And locks in cost (while probably being cheaper than going year to year in arbitration).

[Hallas]

8 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

What’s the play/angle/reason for signing him now? 

You have no new information other than rehab progression when you start the arb process in 2024/2025 offseason, so it doesn't make much difference getting it done now vs going year by year.  Next year is a prearb year so the number is more or less set. Bautista gets a little job security, we likely get a small discount in arb pricing since those go up every year.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Hallas

[Aristotelian]

6 minutes ago, emmett16 said:

What’s the play/angle/reason for signing him now? 

We avoid arbitration, Felix gets some guaranteed money should the surgery fail.

[Winter]

21 minutes ago, ShoelesJoe said:

Wonder what Cleveland would want for Emmanuel Clase. 

nothing special about him other than Cleveland can't win by more than 3 runs. 

[rm5678]

24 minutes ago, ShoelesJoe said:

Wonder what Cleveland would want for Emmanuel Clase. 

Clase gets a lot of saves but also get a lot of blown saves.

[tntoriole]

Absolutely zero surprise here.   We shall see  what 2024 looks like .. always guys surprising in the pen.  Cano, Coulombe were completely totally different than expected. 
Someone will step up.  I seriously doubt a free agent closer like Hader is signed. 

[Going Underground]

33 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Smart, I was thinking of posting this suggestion.

He did the same thing with John Means.

[Ridgway22]

Well, damn it. I was hoping against hope for a miracle and him to be added to the playoff roster.

Alas.

 

[TonySoprano]

Inevitable.   Sorry for him, hope he bounces back.

[Morgan423]

In case anyone is curious, the AP is reporting the contract to be $2m total, $1m per season for 2024 and 2025.   That covers his final pre-arb year next year, and arb year 1 in 2025.  

For context, he was signed for about $700k this year.   

[Moose Milligan]

Hope he makes a full recovery and is back on opening day 2025. 

[Uli2001]

Why did they keep this charade going for as long as they did? It was clear that there was something bad with his arm from day 1. Just make the announcement and move on.

I think the Orioles will not go with an in-house solution for the closer in 2024. They already had to reinforce the bullpen, that's the most important piece. Everyone else pitches better sliding back one inning.

[Just Regular]

Maybe its just one more winter and spring of keeping up the Orioles Player Development to get Wandisson Charles to that Felix Bautista performance neighborhood.

Knowing Elias' hesitance so far to assure any SP more than 1 year, I'd project it to triple dog dare apply to relievers.

Sigbot will find some pitch ingredients and then coach 'em up.

I'm not sure Josh Hader could give enough of a home state discount to get Elias interested.

We only give 2-year deals for cost certainty if the Arm is injured and out Year 1.