José Ureña elected to become a free agent rather than remain part of the Los Angeles Dodgers organization after he was designated for assignment.
Ureña cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Oklahoma City, but he rejected the Minor League assignment in favor of reaching free agency. Ureña had the option to do so because he previously had been DFA’d in his career, with two instances already coming earlier this season.
Even if that had not been the case, Ureña still held the power to reject an assignment to the Minors due to having accrued three years of Major League service time.
The Dodgers signed Ureña on June 3 amid a need for fresh arms in their bullpen. Ureña joined the team one day after becoming a free agent upon clearing waivers when he was designated for assignment by the Toronto Blue Jays.
“He is here for length, and he’s a Major League pitcher, and with where we’re at, things are kind of moving and changing, so we’ll see how he performs,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said when Urena was signed. “But it is nice to have some some coverage on the downside, as far as the length.”
Ureña only made two appearances during his brief time with the Dodgers, both of which came against the New York Mets over a three-day span. On June 3, he retired two of three batters faced. Then two days later, Ureña allowed one run over 2.1 innings pitched.
In addition to the Dodgers and Blue Jays, the 33-year-old has also pitched for the Mets this seaspn.
Over his MLB career, Ureña has a 4.78 ERA, 4.90 FIP, 1.40 WHIP, 15.4% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate. He has been in the Majors for parts of 11 seasons, spending the majority of that with the Miami Marlins before stints with the Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, Colorado Rockies, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, New York Mets, Blue Jays and Dodgers.
Why did Dodgers DFA José Ureña?
Ureña’s time with the Dodgers came to an end on June 10, when he was designated for assignment as the corresponding move to Matt Sauer getting recalled from Oklahoma City.
Ureña, Chris Stratton and J.P. Feyereisen are relief pitchers who have recently left the Dodgers organization to pursue opportunities in free agency.
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