Injuries have forced the Los Angeles Dodgers into a seemingly endless shuffle of pitchers in their starting rotation. They’ve also led to the club relying on their ballyhooed organizational depth, which equated to Julio Urias being among those to be promoted from Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Urias made his Major League debut on May 27 and remained a fixture in the rotation into July. Urias is currently in his third stint with the Dodgers this season. However, since being recalled, the club has primarily used the 20-year-old as a reliever.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts indicated that’s the role Urias figures to fill for the time being.
“In the near-term Julio is going to be out of the ‘pen,” Roberts said over the weekend.
“It’s a luxury for us, because with the construction of our pitching staff, we haven’t had that length guy. So he’ll act as that unless something changes.”
Something did change after Roberts’ comments, as Brandon McCarthy was put back on the disabled list, and Brett Anderson suffered a mild sprain of his left wrist, pitching just one inning in his 2016 debut.
Bud Norris is expected to fill the void left by McCarthy, while the hope is Anderson makes a quick return. Urias has made 10 starts and two relief appearances for the Dodgers this season. He picked up the slack after McCarthy’s short start on Saturday, throwing 2.2 scoreless innings and earning the win.
“Julio, you talk about player of the game, with what he did and gave us length, was huge,” Roberts said after the win. In 12 games with the Dodgers Urias is 3-2 with a 4.41 ERA, 3.57 FIP and 1.59 WHIP.
He has thrown 96 innings on the season between Triple-A and the Majors, which is a career high.
