The 2023 season has been a continuous struggle for Julio Urías, who was expected to be the ace of the Los Angeles Dodgers rotation while looking to cement his status as one of the top free-agent starters available this winter.
Over the first half of the year, Urías pitched to a 4.76 ERA over 64.1 innings, nearly two runs higher than his career average. In addition to his disappointing performance, Urías also suffered a left hamstring strain that kept him out of action for six weeks.
When he returned from the 15-day injured list, Urías gave up five runs in just three innings to the Kansas City Royals. But over his next two starts, he pitched a combined 12 innings with just two runs allowed, which gave the Dodgers hope he was getting back on track.
That was until Urías allowed a career-high eight runs over five innings against the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday, which had him frustrated by his inconsistency after the loss, via Juan Toribio of MLB.com:
“Just the inconsistencies again,” Urías said in Spanish. “My teammates gave me a lead in that first inning, and I wasn’t able to hold it. I think that started all the frustration I had with my mechanics and the consistency of my throws. From the first inning, I just wasn’t able to respond to them giving me an early lead.”
Following the conclusion of the game, Urías is now 7-6, having thrown 75.1 innings with a 5.02 ERA, his highest mark since 2017 when he posted a 5.40 ERA over five starts and 23.1 innings. The left-hander has also allowed the same number of earned runs this season (42) as he did throughout his 175 innings pitched in 2022.
If there is a bright side for Urías, he has still limited quality contact well, ranking in the 87th percentile of hard-hit rate. Urías’ expected ERA is 3.86 and he has still limited walks extremely well.
However, when Urías does give up contact, it tends to be loud with a 25th-percentile barrel rate and an expected slugging percentage of .428, which has contributed to a career-worst home run per fly ball rate of more than 15%.
The Dodgers need Urías to get back on track, and while there is still hope he can be an ace, it’s becoming harder to expect that to happen.
Julio Urías wanted to pitch with new mindset
After his six shutout innings against the New York Mets, Urías expressed the need to pitch with a “vacation is over” mindset and get back to work toward being an ace.
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