Orioles activate reliever Félix Bautista from injured list, Albernaz returning, Mancini retires

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Baltimore Orioles activated reliever Félix Bautista from the 60-day injured list Saturday, setting up the former closer to return from right shoulder surgery 14 months after his last major league game.

Bautista saved 33 games and struck out 110 in 61 innings while earning an All-Star nod in 2023, but he missed the final month of that season and all of 2024 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He had 19 saves in 35 games in 2025 before surgery to repair his torn labrum and torn rotator cuff ended his season.

Bautista had a 2.35 ERA in nine minor league rehab games.

“He is as close to full go as he could be,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “We’re going to try to be as smart as we can with using Félix. But also, the game is chaotic and unpredictable, so you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The Orioles also optioned pitcher Cade Povich and outfielder Heston Kjerstad to Triple-A Norfolk, activated outfielder Christian Franklin from the 10-day injured list and transferred outfielder Tyler O’Neill to the 60-day IL.

Mike Elias, Baltimore’s president of baseball operations, said Saturday that Albernaz would return in 2027. The Orioles are 75-79 in Albernaz’s first season and began the day three games out of an AL wild-card spot.

“It’s a great vote of confidence,” Albernaz said. “Obviously, this season hasn’t gone the way I wanted it by any stretch, by how the players wanted the season to go, how the front office, how the fanbase. … That’s something I wear pretty heavily because of the seat I’m in and I don’t take that lightly.”

In addition, Trey Mancini signed a one-day contract to retire with the Orioles, the franchise he played for during the bulk of his eight-year career in the majors.

The former first baseman and outfielder had four 20-homer seasons for Baltimore. He also was an emotional centerpiece of the Orioles after he recovered from a colon cancer diagnosis that cost him the entire 2020 season and earned the AL’s Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2021 by hitting .255 with 21 homers and 71 RBIs.

“I know there have been players that were better players than me overall and that haven’t gotten this treatment and haven’t gotten to retire with the team they came up with and played with for a long time and really identified with,” said Mancini, who was honored before the Orioles’ game against the Milwaukee Brewers. “It’s not something I take for granted at all.”

Mancini hit .263 with 129 homers and 404 RBIs in the majors, making 701 of his 836 appearances with the Orioles.

Mancini was dealt to Houston at the trade deadline in 2022 and helped the Astros win the World Series. He struggled in 79 games with the Chicago Cubs in 2023, spent the following year out of baseball and then played the first three months of the 2025 season with Reno, Arizona’s Triple-A team.

Mancini hit .308 in five games with the Los Angeles Angels in June, then announced his retirement on Aug. 18.

“The whole goal was to make it back up and end my career on my terms more so than how they were kind of ended for me three years prior,” Mancini said. “I knew that the rest of my life I could look back and have no regrets.”

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