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Felix Bautista’s 2022 put him on track to be the Orioles’ next great closer

Almost anywhere you look, Felix Bautista is “officially” listed at 6’5”, 190lbs. Yet, every time he stepped on the field this season for the Orioles, his stature and the heights of his pitching prowess only proved to be larger and larger.

In a season full of surprises for Baltimore’s favorite Birds, none were bigger than Bautista—both literally and metaphorically. The man now known as The Mountain came to the Orioles in relative anonymity. Bautista signed with the Marlins out of the Dominican Republic as a 17-year-old in 2012, only to be released outright three years later. He signed a minor league contract with the Orioles in 2016 and proceeded to bounce around between rookie and A ball for three seasons.