BALTIMORE—Orioles closer Félix Bautista and starting pitcher Zach Eflin won’t pitch again during the 2025 season.
Bautista has what interim manager Tony Mansolino calls “a significant injury” to his right shoulder and is still being examined. “He’s got the appointment this week. It’s hard to have all the information until he goes through the proper appointments and channels,” Mansolino said.
Eflin will have a lower back procedure, a lumbar microdiscectomy, and rehab at home.
Bautista, who had Tommy John surgery in October 2023, returned this season after missing 2024, was 1-1 with a 2.60 ERA and 19 saves in 20 opportunities this year in 35 games. He reported that he was unable to pitch during the July 23rd game at Cleveland and was put on the injured list the next day.
“There were no indications prior to the injury,” Mansolino said.
Eflin has been on the 15-day injured list three times this year, once with a lat injury and twice with back injuries.
He finishes the season 6-5 with a 5.93 ERA in 14 starts.
Grayson Rodriguez, who had surgery to remove bone chips from his right elbow on Monday, will rehab in Sarasota, Florida and will “be likely to be ready for spring training. Should be good to go for there,” Mansolino said.
Rodriguez did not pitch this season.
“This has felt like this for a while this year,” Mansolino said. “I think we got [14] starts out of Ef and none out of Grayson. We’ve felt it all year. As you go through the trade deadline, what happened here earlier in the year, the staff changes and the things that went on, I don’t think today is a day of finality by any means. It’s just something we’ve had to take on throughout the year and put our best foot forward, and I feel like we have in many ways.”
Updates on Bradish, Wells, Suárez
Starting pitcher Kyle Bradish will get two more rehab starts. He’s scheduled to pitch on Thursday for Triple-A Norfolk at Jacksonville. Tyler Wells will get two or three more, Mansolino said. Wells is scheduled to start on Friday. “Right now we’re building them both back up as starters,” Mansolino said. “As we get closer we’ll make some decisions on how we’re going to handle all that.”
Albert Suárez, who hasn’t pitched since March, will pitch for Double-A Chesapeake on Tuesday night. He’ll be built up as a bulk-inning pitcher in order to expedite the rehab process.
“Depending on what we do with Wellsy, Bradish is going to be in the rotation, now you’ve got two guys in the rotation coming off Tommy John,” Mansolino said. ‘That can be unstable if they both go three innings or four innings, first couple of outings, depending on whether they get hit around or not, what can that do to the bullpen?
“It can make it really tough, so we have to figure out how we’re going to do this. We’ve got some bulk guys we’re building up. You’ve got Dietrich Enns who can throw bulk. Suárez could throw bulk. If he comes back, he can help that thing out. We have to figure out how to make this thing work. Obviously, September 1, you get another pitcher, so that helps, too, but it’s hard to break in two guys at the same time coming off surgery in the rotation.”
Mansolino said that a six-man rotation is a possibility.
“That’s all on the table. We had that discussion the other day,” Mansolino said. “There are no guarantees that Wells is after September 1st. He could be before. So, we’ll see where everything lands. We discussed all that. Honestly, we have no idea what we’re going to do, yet. We’ve almost got to get there first … It would kind of be naïve to look too far ahead.”
Notes: The Orioles activated outfielder Daniel Johnson and optioned outfielder Jordyn Adams to Norfolk. Johnson was claimed off waivers from San Francisco on Monday. … Single-A Delmarva catcher Andrew Tess is the Orioles’ minor league player of the month. Right-hander Trey Gibson, who’ll make his Norfolk debut on Wednesday, is the Orioles’ minor league pitcher of the month for July. … High-A Aberdeen right-hander Raimon Gomez is on the 7-day injured list with a low back strain.
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