When the expectations of an entire city are on your shoulders, the hype and constant analysis can become overbearing. To combat that, the Los Angeles Dodgers have nursed along one of the most formidable young pitching prospects in Major League Baseball.
Signed at the tender age of 16, Julio Urias has been handled with care as the Dodgers have focused on developing and preparing the southpaw both on and off the field.
Urias has spent the past three seasons in the Minors, building his innings base, refining his pitch repertoire and taking time to undergo elective eye surgery that removed a benign cyst.
Despite missing two months of the season in 2015, the 19 year old was ranked as the best left-handed prospect in baseball for a second consecutive year. As for the expectations he faces, Urias welcomes it and is striving to live up to them.
The Mexican native also isn’t phased by his young, as he explained to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“I know I’m the youngest guy in the clubhouse for the most part, but I always try to treat my teammates with respect, so that they in turn treat me with respect,” he said. “Since they’re older than I am, I try to get along with them and just respect them more than anything else.”
Urias traces the comfortability in competing against and being among older players to his youth:
“[Playing against older opponents] is the same, really. Thank God I’ve always had that gift, since I was very young, to play in the Pan American Games and world tournaments with guys that were older than me and play against older players. So I think you could say that I’m used to that.”
In seven starts with the Drillers last season prior to undergoing the eye surgery, Urias was 1-2 with a 3.00 ERA, 2.57 FIP, and 0.94 WHIP. Opponents hit just .194/.246/.318 and Urias averaged 11.50 strikeouts per nine innings over that stretch.
After rehab starts with the Arizona League Dodgers and High Rancho Cucamonga, Urias was back in Double-A. Overall with the Drillers he was 3-4 with a 2.77 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, and .213 opponent batting average. Also, Urias struck out 74 batters in 68.1 innings pitched.
Although many expect Urias to be called up during the 2016 season, the newfound depth in the starting rotation of the Dodgers may impede the process. Urias will enter the 2016 season with a clean bill of health and looking to reach the 100-inning mark in a single season for the first time in his career.
