After a 2016 season in which he made his Major League debut and had success against big league hitters at the age of 19, the Los Angeles Dodgers had high expectations for left-handed pitcher Julio Urias in 2017.
Due to his youth though, the Dodgers planned to once again limit his innings in 2017. So while all of his teammates were preparing to be ready for Opening Day during Spring Training, Urias was ramping up at a much slower pace with an end-of-April target set for him to make his season debut.
The plan to limit his innings in April made sense, as they didn’t want to have to do so in September and October when the team was in the midst of a pennant race.
Urias made his big league season debut on April 27, and his first three starts were good ones as he yielded nine hits and two runs in 17 innings. Walks were an issue though as he handed out 10 free passes while also striking out 10.
His control issues continued in his next two starts, and the results started to show it as he gave up 12 runs across 6.1 innings. The struggles caused a demotion to Triple-A Oklahoma City to work out some mechanical issues.
In the 23.1 innings, Urias had a 5.40 ERA, 4.70 FIP and 1.59 WHIP while striking out 11 and walking 14.
Disaster struck for the Dodgers and their young 20-year-old lefty in June, as while pitching with OKC on June 10, the anterior capsule in his left shoulder tore, forcing him to undergo surgery, ending Urias’ season.
2017 Highlight:
On May 9 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Urias had perhaps the best outing of his young career. The Mexico native got through six hitless innings before giving up a leadoff double to Andrew McCutchen to leadoff the seventh inning.
Urias completed his outing with 6.1 innings of one-hit ball, yielding one earned run. The bullpen blew the lead, so he did not earn a win, but the Dodgers came away with a walk-off 4-3 victory.
2018 Outlook:
The shoulder injury is expected to require 12-14 months of recovery, but given Urias’ youth, the Dodgers will take their time with his recovery.
So don’t expect to see Urias in 2018, but come 2019 he should be fully healed and ready to go, still at the young age of 22.
