For more than one year there were loud calls for the Los Angeles Dodgers to promote Julio Urias. Now, those calls are for the club to leave the young left-hander in the starting rotation.
Urias is scheduled to start Wednesday’s three-game series finale against the Washington Nationals. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has indicated the club will remove Urias from the rotation as a means of controlling his workload this season.
What that specifically entails has not yet been divulged. “We’re really just taking it start-by-start,” Dodgers president baseball operations Andrew Friedman recently told David Vassegh on “Dodgers On Deck” on AM 570 LA Sports.
“And as much as anything is the puzzle of figuring out how to continue developing Julio while balancing trying to win.”
The Dodgers have used a similar strategy with Jose De Leon and Ross Stripling this season. De Leon was held back in extended Spring Training, and missed additional time after suffering from shoulder soreness after his first start with Oklahoma City.
Stripling began 2016 in the Dodgers’ rotation, has since been optioned, and is currently at Camelback Ranch. For Urias, one solution may be working as a relief pitcher.
“I can definitely see a scenario this season where while monitoring his innings, we have him contributing out of the bullpen,” Friedman said. When it appeared the Dodgers may call Urias up and utilize him as a reliever, the 19 year old said he’d like to first gain experience in that role in the Minors.
Whether a starter or reliever, Urias figures to be capable of handling of either. “Seeing how composed he’s been pitching in New York, Chicago and also San Francisco, he’s had some pretty tough draws,” Friedman said.
“The arrow is pointing up each time you see him learn from his past outing and apply it to that next outing, which I think bodes extremely well for his long-term future.”
