Felix Bautista Instagram story hints he could return sooner than Orioles fans thought

A story on Felix Bautista’s Instagram account revealed that the Orioles' electric closer is well on his way to recovering from the Tommy John surgery he underwent last September. Bautista also had surgery in early February to clean up scar tissue in his elbow.

The video, presumably shot at the Orioles facility in Sarasota, shows Bautista throwing high-velocity pitches from an elevated surface. It has been widely expected that Bautista would return for the 2025 season.

However, Bird Watchers’ own Brian Barr predicted back in February that Bautista would come back early. Nothing from Bautista or the Orioles has claimed otherwise but the video, which made its way to X has piqued the interest of a few fans.

The Orioles bullpen is currently in shambles. In a season where nothing has gone the Orioles way on the injury front, a surprise early return from baseball’s best reliever would be a huge boost to the Orioles' morale and the prospects of a late October run. 

Could Felix Bautista really make an early comeback and help the Orioles in the 2024 postseason?

A 2024 return notwithstanding, the video is reassuring. It also raises questions about the way the Orioles handled Bautista’s injury since he walked off the mound last August 25th. That night, Brandon Hyde announced in his postgame comments that Bautista left the game with right elbow discomfort. A little more than two weeks later, on September 11th, Orioles General Manager Mike Elias announced that Bautista had a partial tear but would not, at that time, rule out a return in 2023.

A little more than two weeks afterward, Mike Elias announced that Bautista was indeed going to undergo Tommy John surgery. Over the span of that month, several reports stated that Bautista was slowly making his way toward a return for the 2023 postseason. While hindsight is 20/20, would the 2024 Orioles have been better off if Bautista had Tommy John as quickly as possible? Was the effort to get Bautista back for 2023 an act of baseball malpractice?

Maybe…maybe not. You could argue the Orioles were a year ahead of schedule last year, and everything that happened was icing on the cake. The postseason revealed the team’s flaws and Bautista would not have factored in any of the 3 games.

Nobody could have foreseen the injury woes the Orioles' pitching staff has endured this season. Despite what happened last season and no matter what lies ahead this season, one thing is clear…Felix Bautista makes the Orioles a radically different team and the video posted by Bautista should have fans excited about the future.