Who could be the Orioles closer with Félix Bautista injured?

Who could become the closer for the Orioles with Félix Bautista injured?

Danny Coulombe

Danny Coulombe, acquired days before the season started, has turned into a reliable high leverage lefty arm in the bullpen, which has been especially needed with Cionel Pérez's noteworthy struggles this season.

Coulombe sports a 2.75 ERA, 2.61 FIP, and 1.093 WHIP through 39 1/3 innings and 48 appearances. He has racked up the strikeouts this season with an average of 11.2 per nine innings, and like Cano, Coulombe has seen a few save situations, picking up two this year.

It seems unlikely that Coulombe will become a full-time closer, but when Cano needs a breather and if the right matchup presents itself, Coulombe is absolutely a candidate to pick up a save or two. It's more likely that Coulombe will become a top setup man in advance of the ninth inning.

Shintaro Fujinami

Acquired with just under two weeks before the trade deadline, Shintaro Fujinami has been a Jekyll and Hyde pitcher this season, not just with the Orioles. There are days where he looks simply unbeatable, and there are others when nothing is working for him.

That has led to a mostly middle relief role for Fujinami, who has allowed nine earned runs in 17 innings and 16 appearances in an Orioles uniform. He also loves to strike out hitters, averaging 11.1 strikeouts per nine since joining Baltimore.

Even through his roller coaster ride, Fujinami has one save with the Orioles, coming against the Seattle Mariners during the Orioles extended west coast road trip. Seeing Fujinami come out of the bullpen in the ninth inning in a save situation would be very surprising, but it's not far-fetched to see him growing into more regular setup opportunities with Bautista shelved.

Who could become the closer for the Orioles with Félix Bautista injured?

Jacob Webb

Claimed off waivers in early August, Jacob Webb has quickly turned into a dependable reliever in the Orioles bullpen, having gone his first nine appearances without allowing a run, totaling 8 2/3 innings. He's averaged 12.5 strikeouts per nine in an Orioles uniform and has a notably nasty changeup.

It's unlikely Webb gets any save situations for the Orioles. He does have four saves in his career, including one with the Angels this season, but Webb isn't far removed from becoming so unpitchable that he was DFA'd by the Angels, who are notoriously bad at pitching. Regardless, the turnaround from Webb has been impressive to see.

DL Hall

Called up from Triple A as the corresponding move for Bautista hitting the IL, the Orioles sent DL Hall to Sarasota mid-season to give him a breather, as it was clear he was hitting a wall in terms of workload and velocity.

In Sarasota, they focused on building Hall up in shorter bursts to get his velocity back, and then sent him back to Norfolk to work out of the bullpen. He came up in the tail end of 2022 as a reliever, working in high leverage situations as the Orioles were surprisingly pushing for the playoffs. He even recorded a save last year.

Just getting back into the swing of things as a reliever, it would be shocking to see Hall in the ninth inning, but leverage opportunities and a possible setup role would not be surprising, as he could be the shot in the arm this bullpen needs with Bautista down for the foreseeable future.