Even by including Alex Wood in their trade with the Cincinnati Reds, the Los Angeles Dodgers boast a plethora of starting pitch depth heading into the 2019 season. They hope Julio Urias will be part of that as he enters into a second year removed from shoulder surgery.
Urias saw his 2017 campaign come to an end in June as he underwent an operation to repair a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder. He didn’t pitch until the end of July the following year, which marked the start of a steady rise through the Minor League ranks.
Urias joined the Dodgers in September and somewhat improbably was included on the club’s active roster for the 2018 National League Championship Series and World Series.
Despite pitching well enough to be active during the latter stages of last year’s postseason, the Dodgers don’t intend to carry Urias on their Opening Day roster as they determine a 2019 plan, via Jorge Castillo of the L.A. Times:
Manager Dave Roberts said Urias wasn’t a candidate to begin the season in the Dodgers’ bullpen, and that he would be on an innings limit in 2019.
“He’s a guy that was abbreviated last year and when it mattered in the postseason we counted on him,” Roberts said. “But if you look at the workload the last couple years, it’s pretty low. So we’ve still got to be mindful of that. … How we ramp him up is a topic at the forefront of our minds.”
The Dodgers have become quite adept at managing innings for their young pitchers over recent years, including Urias every step of the way in his career thus far. He’s expected to begin the season in the starting rotation for Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Including time in the Minors and postseason, Urias logged just 22 innings last season. He reached 54.2 in 2017 before suffering the season-ending injury.
Roberts previously outlined the club envisions Urias as a starter at the Major League level for 2019 despite the innings limit.
