SARASOTA, Fla. — The last time Félix Bautista, baseball’s most dominant, most intimidating reliever, fired off a competitive pitch, stunned silence trailed in its wake.

The date was Aug. 25, 2023 and Bautista was just one strike away from his 49th save of the season. His upstart Baltimore Orioles, MLB’s most invigorating surprise, were up a run in the ninth inning. Bautista, a 6-foot-8 fireballing dynamo known fittingly as “The Mountain,” was in the homestretch of an all-time sensational relief season. Through 61 innings, the broad-shouldered Dominican had punched out 110 batters with a microscopic 1.48 ERA.

And right before it all went wrong, it couldn’t have felt more perfect. It was a Friday night in late summer and Camden Yards was buzzing with a likely first postseason trip in seven seasons just five weeks away. Bautista had allowed runs in just two of his past 21 outings. Excitement filled every nook and cranny of the Inner Harbor ballyard as the ravenous crowd roared on its beloved All-World closer.

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But as Bautista coiled off a 102 mph heater, he awkwardly tumbled off the first base side of the mound. A look of discomfort instantly streaked across his sweat-glistened face. He removed his cap and grimaced. Athletic trainers, interpreters and coaches flooded toward the mound. Moments later, the flamethrowing closer was shepherded off the mound.

In the seats, joy instantaneously gave way to worry; 28,872 souls held hearts in throats, went full surrender cobra and stared out at the void in disbelief. The broadcast camera panned to general manager Mike Elias — who watches most home games from the stands — lost in a state of stoic contemplation. The O’s would win the ballgame, but lose the war.

A few days later, everyone's worst fears were realized: Bautista had a UCL injury, one that would eventually need reconstructive surgery. Baltimore and its closer tried in vain to rehab the issue in hopes that a miracle would make Bautista available for the postseason.

On Monday, 556 days since Bautista trudged his enormous frame off the Camden Yards mound, the Mountain reemerged. In a one-inning spring training outing against the Boston Red Sox, Bautista made his long-awaited return to the mound. He threw 13 pitches, struck out two and touched 97 miles per hour. Most importantly, he strolled off the field with a mountain-sized grin. Catcher Adley Rutschman met him at the baseline to offer a congratulatory hug as as a crowd of appreciative O’s fans offered a standing ovation.

It was a long way from the shocked silence at Camden Yards the day his elbow gave out.

“[Returning to the mound] was something I thought about every day, and it's something that kept me going throughout my rehab process.” Bautista gleefully told reporters through an interpreter after his outing.

“I missed my fans. I missed hearing them every time I stepped onto the field, so it was very gratifying being able to go out there today and hear them once again.”

Bautista will continue building himself back up over the final three weeks of spring training. Manager Brandon Hyde said he plans to be cautious with his SUV-sized closer; Bautista won’t pitch on back-to-back days or work more than an inning to start the season. But seeing Bautista in white and orange again was a great reminder that, when healthy, he is one of the most impactful, game-changing pitchers on the planet.

“When you're handing a ball to your closer and it's the guy throwing 101 with a 92 mile an hour splitter, you feel good about your chances,” Hyde quipped.

But a lot has changed in Birdland since Bautista’s last outing.

The franchise has a new owner, David Rubenstein, who funded a significant payroll increase over the winter. The O’s have played, and lost, five postseason games. Bautista was hurt for all of them. None of the three other O’s pitchers to appear in the game that Bautista blew out his elbow are still in the organization. The pitching staff, in particular, has witnessed a ton of turnover.

Most importantly, the expectations in Baltimore have shifted.

The O’s are no longer a spicy upstart. Their ascension from doormat to contender is essentially complete. A massive wave of young hitters like Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Colton Cowser, Jordan Westburg and Jackson Holliday have debuted in the bigs to varying degrees of success. Simply reaching the playoffs is no longer a sufficient outcome. Aspirations are higher than that. The time in Baltimore is now.

Getting Rutschman right — the two-time All-Star catcher was horrendous in the second half of 2024 — is priority No. 1 for the Birds. The franchise backstop looked worn down in October and he struggled mightily at the dish whenever he started behind the plate. That Rutschman served as Baltimore’s designated hitter in Game 1 of its wild-card round loss against Kansas City was, in and of itself, the story and the problem.

Many talent evaluators around the game raised eyebrows about Baltimore’s offseason, a winter in which payroll skyrocketed from $103 million to $161 million despite the departure of ace Corbin Burnes and All-Star slugger Anthony Santander. Investment is never a bad thing, but how the O’s invested was a topic of doubt. Rather than paying a single top-shelf free agent, Baltimore signed multiple less obviously impactful pieces like oft-injured big-swinging outfielder Tyler O'Neill, 35-year-old soft-tossing Japanese import Tomoyuki Sugano and 41-year-old veteran starter Charlie Morton.

Finding a way to backfill the production from Burnes and Santander will be a massive storyline of Baltimore’s season. The return of Bautista and his 100 mph heat should certainly help.

There was no elaborate light show, whistle from "The Wire" or heart-pounding music for Bautista’s entrance Monday. Instead, the closer entered to a series of messages on the tiny outfield videoboard at Ed Smith Stadium that included a happy birthday for someone named Ann Barnes and retirement wishes for a Mike Hobmann. Things will be a bit different when Bautista lumbers out of the Camden Yards 'pen for the first time this season, but his first outing back was unequivocally a very upbeat day in Birdland.

Other assorted notes from O’s camp

• Baltimore has a reputation for being one of the best organizations at developing hitters, but voices around the game say that the O’s are making massive headway on the pitching side as well. All the club’s minor league affiliates finished top three in their respective leagues last year by strikeout rate. How many of those talented arms develop into starters remains to be seen, but evaluators are high on the group of O’s pitchers set to spend this upcoming season in Double-A.

• Tomoyuki Sugano threw two innings Monday against Boston. The 35-year-old, who signed with Baltimore on a one-year deal for $13 million this winter, will be pitching in the bigs for the first time in his career. Sugano won the MVP award last season in Japan’s Central League, but there are questions about how his stuff will translate. His fastball sat in the 92-93 mph range Monday, below last year’s MLB average. His two main secondaries are a short cutter in the 86-87 mph range and a changeup around 84 mph. Sugano is a massively popular figure in Japan, but based upon early impressions, he looks like more of an innings-eating backend starter than a frontline arm.

• Gunnar Henderson was removed from a Grapefruit League game last week with “lower right-side discomfort” but he shouldn’t be out long. Manager Brandon Hyde said that the O’s superstar shortstop is already feeling better. There’s no reason to expect that Henderson, who finished fourth last year in AL MVP voting, won’t be ready for Opening Day.