The Los Angeles Dodgers’ starting rotation depth was put to the test early in 2019, with Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill and Hyun-Jin Ryu all spending time on the 10-day injured list in the first few weeks of the season.
The rotation is starting to get healthy though with Kershaw and Ryu already returning and Hill expected to make his season debut on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
With that, a pair of starters that did a solid job of replacing them in Julio Urias and Ross Stripling, are being placed in the bullpen.
For Urias, the move had nothing to do with his performance. It was instead a result of an innings limit that the organization has placed on him in his first full season coming off shoulder surgery.
The Dodgers don’t plan to utilize Urias as a normal relief pitcher, as manager Dave Roberts said that he will still get multiple days in a row off and will throw multiple innings when he does pitch, via SportsNet LA:
“It’s kind of a hybrid role. Obviously, when you talk about Julio and how he’s been built up, to take on two, three, four innings potentially, we could do that.”
Having Urias in a role like that should help him keep a similar routine to that of a starter and also should give the rest of the bullpen rest to keep them fresh throughout the course of the season.
Urias is coming off his best outing of the year when he started against the Milwaukee Brewers last Thursday. He tossed six shutout innings, allowing just one hit with a career-high nine strikeouts and two walks.
Urias’ first appearance out of the bullpen came in a lopsided loss to the Chicago Cubs. He entered in the fifth and struck out four over two hitless frames.
With the 22-year-old already throwing 22.2 innings on the season, there is a good chance that he remains in the bullpen the rest of the year barring a significant amount of injuries in the rotation.
