Breaking: The Orioles closer has been named the Al Reliever of the….

Felix Bautista has been named the 2023 Mariano Rivera American League Reliever of the Year.

He won this award unanimously despite missing time due to a partial UCL tear. He finished ahead of Cleveland Guardians’ closer Emmanuel Clase and the Toronto Blue Jays’ reliever Jordan Romano.

Bautista became the second player in Orioles history to win the award, which was created in 2014. Zack Britton won the honor in 2016.

The star right-hander was by far the best reliever in baseball this season. He had a 1.48 ERA and 16.2 K/9. He also posted 33 saves with a 0.91 WHIP. While the injury will hinder the backend of Baltimore’s bullpen in 2024, getting him back for 2025 will be massive for this young roster.

The hard-throwing righty frequently reached the triple digits with his fastball and snuck in a splitter and slider to go with it. He posted 96-plus percentiles on pitching run value, fastball run value, xERA, xBA, fastball velocity, Whiff%, and K%, according to Baseball Savant.

Bautista was named an All-Star for the first time in his second season playing Major League Baseball. Given he only threw 65 2/3 big league innings prior to this season, what he did in 2023 was even more impressive.

He turned in one of the most dominating seasons from a reliever in quite some time. The hope is that he returns from his injury and can continue being the elite closer that he was.