Los Angeles Dodgers: Limiting Julio Urias’ Innings
By Ryan Schultz
The Los Angeles Dodgers have a phenom in Julio Urias, but they are being careful to keep him healthy at such a young age. In an effort to limit innings, he may not start the season with the big league club.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have taken some big steps towards being an even better team in 2017. They were highly successful in 2016, despite facing a plague of injuries, especially in their pitching staff. They used 15 different starters during the season, which, luckily, they had the depth to withstand. They would like to limit those injuries this season, but depth does remain. That depth, albeit not super impressive depth, will allow the Dodgers to give young star Julio Urias some rest to start the season.
We’ve seen innings limits grow more and more important in recent seasons. Most teams have employed these innings limits at the tail end of the season, leaving their pitchers out of the postseason staff. Stephen Strasburg was the most notable of these decisions. The Dodgers are aware that they will likely reach the postseason. They’ll want Julio Urias to be available when they do. Rather than be forced to tiptoe around an innings limit at the tail end of the season and into the postseason, the Dodgers may choose to limit Urias’ innings in the early part of 2017.
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The best option to do so is to keep him in extended Spring Training to start the season. Extended Spring Training allows players to remain at the Spring Training facility until June while still doing Spring Training activities. Urias would play in games with low pressure, throw bullpens, and work on his game. All of this would happen in a pressure-less environment where Urias can stay fresh while still limiting the number of innings put on his arm.
Extended Spring Training does last until June, but the Dodgers could recall Urias at any time. That gives them plenty of flexibility to make a decision regarding his season as things progress. Surely the Dodgers will miss him in the rotation, but the depth behind him is capable of handling major league innings. Alex Wood, Brandon McCarthy, and Ross Stripling could all handle the load that would be placed on Urias with relative ease. Where things could get hairy is if injuries quickly strike against injury-prone pitchers in the rotation, especially Rich Hill and Hyun-Jin Ryu. In that case, the Dodgers may have to make a tough decision about Urias, but until that happens they’re in good shape.
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Julio Urias is still just 20 years old. The Dodgers are wise to keep his innings limited during his first couple years in professional baseball. He set an innings record for his career last season at 127.2 (previous high was 87.2). The Los Angeles Dodgers don’t want to quickly push that even higher in the coming season. If everything breaks right, the Dodgers will have a rested Urias when they need him the most.