Julio Urías

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Urías and the second or maternal family name is Acosta.
Julio Urías

Urías with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2014 spring training
Los Angeles Dodgers – No. 7
Pitcher
Born: (1996-08-12) August 12, 1996
Culiacán, Sinaloa, México
Bats: Left Throws: Left
MLB debut
May 27, 2016, for the Los Angeles Dodgers
MLB statistics
(through 2016 season)
Win–loss record 5–2
Earned run average 3.39
Strikeouts 84
WHIP 1.45
Teams

Julio César Urías Acosta (born August 12, 1996) is a Mexican professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). The Dodgers signed him on August 23, 2012, shortly after his 16th birthday.

Early life

Urias is the son of Carlos Urias.[1] He played with the Mexico national team as a youth, joining them on road trips since the age of 10.[2] The Dodgers discovered and signed Urias on the same June 2012 scouting trip in Mexico on which they signed Yasiel Puig.[3][4] The Dodgers paid a signing fee of $450,000, most of which went to the Diablos Rojos del México of the Mexican League.[5]

Professional career

Minor Leagues

Urías made his professional debut on May 25, 2013, for the Great Lakes Loons in the Midwest League as the youngest player in the league, striking out six batters over three shutout innings.[6] He made a total of 18 starts and finished the season 2–0 with a 2.48 ERA, recording 67 strikeouts in 54.1 innings.[2] He spent 2014 with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the California League. In 25 appearances (20 of which were starts), he was 2–2 with a 2.36 ERA.[4][7] He struck out 109 batters while walking only 37.[8]

Urías pitching for the Oklahoma City Dodgers in 2016

Urías was selected to play for the World team at the 2014 All-Star Futures Game[9] and was selected as the Dodgers organizational "Minor League Pitcher of the Year" for 2014.[10] He received an invitation to attend the team's 2015 major league spring training camp.[11] After pitching in two games, for a total of two innings and a 4.50 ERA,[12] he was the first to be cut from the roster and was reassigned to the team's minor league camp on March 14, 2015.[13]

Urías was ranked by MLBpipeline.com as the top left-handed pitching prospect in all of baseball entering the 2015 season.[14] MLB.com ranked him the 8th-best prospect in baseball, and Baseball America named him the #10 prospect in 2015.[15][16] The Dodgers assigned him to the AA Tulsa Drillers of the Texas League to start the 2015 season.[17] He was 3–4 with a 2.77 ERA in 13 starts for Tulsa.[18]

Urias was promoted to the AAA Oklahoma City Dodgers on August 31, 2015.[19] He struggled in his first AAA action, allowing nine runs in 4 13 innings over two starts.[18] He also allowed six runs, including a grand slam homer, in just one inning in his one start in the Pacific Coast League playoffs.[20] He was again invited to attend Dodgers spring training.[21] He was assigned to AAA to begin the season, where he was 4–1 with a 1.10 ERA in seven starts.[18] He also had a 27 inning scoreless streak during the month of May for Oklahoma City.[22]

Los Angeles Dodgers

Urías was promoted to the Dodgers to make his major league debut against the New York Mets on May 27, 2016. At only 19 years of age, he was the youngest starting pitcher to debut in the Majors since Félix Hernández in the 2005 season and the youngest Dodgers starting pitcher to debut since 18 year old Rex Barney in the 1943 season.[23] He struggled in his debut, lasting only 223 innings while allowing five hits, three runs and four walks. He did strike out three, including the first batter he faced, Curtis Granderson.[24] He was optioned back to AAA after the game.[25] Three days later, he was returned to the active roster after starter Alex Wood went on the disabled list.[26] Urías made his second start on June 2 against the Chicago Cubs. In 5 innings pitched, he gave up 6 runs (5 earned), which included 3 home runs. He allowed 8 hits, and struck out 4.[27][28] He picked up his first major league win, against the Milwaukee Brewers, on June 28, 2016, when he allowed two runs on two hits in six innings. He was the first teenage Dodger pitcher to throw 100 pitches in a game since Joe Moeller in 1962.[29] He pitched in 18 games for the Dodgers, 15 of them starts, and was 5–2 with a 3.39 ERA, 84 strikeouts and 31 walks.[30]

Urías pitched two innings of relief in game five of the 2016 National League Division Series, picking up the win. At 20 years, 62 days old he became the youngest Dodgers pitcher to ever pitch in the post-season. He was two weeks younger than Don Drysdale was in game four of the 1956 World Series. He was also the fourth youngest pitcher in MLB post-season history, behind Ken Brett (1967 World Series), Bert Blyleven (1970 ALCS), and Don Gullett (1970 NLCS and 1970 World Series).[31] He became the youngest pitcher ever to start a post-season game when he started game four of the 2016 National League Championship Series. He allowed four runs in only 3 23 innings in the game.[32]

Personal life

Urias underwent three surgeries on his left eye during his youth to remove a benign mass. As a result, his left eye is nearly closed, but he is able to see through it.[4][33] When asked about his eye condition, Urias, a devout Roman Catholic,[34] said, "That's how God works. He gave me a bad left eye but a good left arm."[4] On May 19, 2015, Urias had an elective surgery to correct the condition.[35]

References

  1. Hernandez, Dylan (March 6, 2015). "Dodgers pitcher Julio Urias makes his father proud". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  2. 1 2 Corona, Victor J. (April 30, 2014). "Teen Urias seeks MLB future". The Sporting Nation. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  3. Badler, Ben (August 23, 2012). "Dodgers Sign Mexican Lefty Julio Urias". Baseball America. Archived from the original on August 26, 2012. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Hernandez, Dylan (February 23, 2015). "Despite eye condition, prospect Julio Urias dazzles on the mound". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  5. Saxon, Mark (March 16, 2014). "Dodgers' 17-year-old prospect dazzles". ESPN. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  6. Marshall, Ashley (May 26, 2013). "Teenager Urias shines in pro debut". Milb.com. Retrieved August 31, 2013.
  7. Saxon, Mark (March 1, 2015). "Julio Urias becomes the buzz of camp". ESPN. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  8. Mininsohn, Julian (September 5, 2014). "Dodgers News: Castro Talks Urias-Venezuela Comparison". Dodgers Nation. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  9. Gurnick, Ken (June 24, 2014). "Seager, Urias named to Futures Game roster". MLB.com.
  10. Stephen, Eric (September 26, 2014). "Joc Pederson, Corey Seager, Julio Urias named Dodgers minor league players of the year". True Blue LA.
  11. Weisman, Jon (January 9, 2015). "Arruebarrena, Seager, Urias among 17 non-roster Spring Training invitees". dodgers.com.
  12. Associated Press (March 14, 2015). "Anderson throws 3 shutout innings as Dodgers beat Indians". ESPN. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  13. Gurnick, Ken (March 14, 2015). "Urias among pitchers sent to Minor League camp". MLB.com. Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  14. Cahill, Teddy (January 21, 2015). "2015 Prospect Watch: Top 10 left-handed pitchers". MLB.com.
  15. "2015 Top 100 Prospects". Baseball America. February 20, 2015.
  16. Stephen, Eric (January 30, 2015). "Dodgers have 3 prospects in MLB.com top 13". True Blue LA.
  17. "Drillers Opening Roster Taking Shape". Drillers News. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  18. 1 2 3 "Julio Urias minor league statistics & history". Baseball Reference.
  19. Bourbon, Steve (August 31, 2015). "Urias to start for Triple-A Oklahoma City". mlb.com. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  20. Stephen, Eric (September 10, 2015). "Julio Urias shelled in OKC loss, Great Lakes eliminated". SB Nation. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  21. Simon, Andrew (January 25, 2016). "Top pitching prospects invited to Dodgers camp". mlb.com. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  22. McCullough, Andy (May 21, 2016). "Julio Urias keeps getting almost everyone out at triple A but still hasn't gotten a call-up from Dodgers". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
  23. Gurnick, Ken (May 26, 2016). "No. 2 MLB prospect Urias debuts for LA on Friday". MLB.com. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  24. Gurnick, Ken (May 28, 2016). "Urias' MLB debut doesn't go as planned". mlb.com. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  25. Stephen, Eric (May 28, 2016). "Dodgers option Julio Urias to Triple-A Oklahoma City one day after debut". SB Nation. Retrieved May 28, 2016.
  26. "Dodgers' Julio Urias: Recalled from Triple-A". CBS Sports. 1 June 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  27. Miles, Bruce (2 June 2016). "Chicago Cubs get power, pitching to beat Dodgers". Daily Herald. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  28. Associated Press (2 June 2016). "Hendricks sharp, Cubs break loose with 4 HRs, beat Dodgers". ESPN. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  29. Stephen, Eric (June 28, 2016). "Dodgers hold on to win Julio Urias' wild ride". SB Nation. Retrieved June 28, 2016.
  30. "Julio Urias Statistics & History". Baseball Reference.
  31. Stephen, Eric (October 13, 2016). "Julio Urias is youngest Dodgers posteason pitcher ever". SB Nation. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  32. Gurnick, Ken and Carrie Muskat (October 20, 2016). "Chicag 'o' is back, ties LA in NLCS!". mlb.com. Retrieved October 22, 2016.
  33. Passan, Jeff (July 13, 2014). "Is 18 too soon for Dodgers phenom Julio Urias to debut in big leagues?". Yahoo! Sports. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  34. http://www.latimes.com/sports/dodgers/la-sp-sn-dodgers-dugout-julio-urias-20160523-htmlstory.html
  35. Stephen, Eric (May 19, 2015). "Julio Urias to miss a month after eye surgery, which could pay off for Dodgers down the stretch". SB Nation. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Julio Urías.
Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Miguel Castro
Youngest Player in the National League
2015
Incumbent
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