Dodgers: Julio Urias to Begin the Season in the Bullpen

Julio Urias was scheduled to start last night’s game for the Dodgers but the start was given to Dustin May instead.  It was announced after the game that Julio is headed to the bullpen as anticipated.

Julio Urias was originally scheduled to start for the Dodgers in last night’s spring training game against the Chicago Cubs but the start was instead given to Dustin May.  Dave Roberts had already announced that Ross Stripling is going to start the season in the rotation and with Walker Buehler now on track to return there was not an open rotation spot for Julio.

Dave Roberts confirmed after the game that Urias will start the season in the bullpen in a long relief role.  This is the Ross Stripling role where Julio could see multiple innings at a time and come in to save the bullpen in extra-inning games.

The starting rotation figures to be Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Ross Stripling, and Walker Buehler in an order that is yet to be determined.  The Dodgers are not going to waste Urias in the minor leagues so that really only leaves open the option of shutting him down for a bit or pitching him out of the bullpen.

With the talent Julio has, the only real option was shifting him to a relief role for a couple of months.  He demonstrated in the 2018 postseason that he could be a high leverage reliever and recorded one of the biggest outs of the season when he got Christian Yelich to fly out to left field.  What that means for Caleb Ferguson remains to be seen but both have the stuff to be elite options in the bullpen.

Starting the 2019 season in a relief role was always the best option for the Dodgers and Julio Urias given that he reportedly has an innings limit of 70-100 innings.  That would put him around being able to make twenty, five-inning starts at most, which are about four plus months worth of starts.  Unless the Dodgers held him back at the beginning of the season he would not be able to pitch the regular season and the postseason.

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Beginning the season in the bullpen gives the Dodgers the ability to get more use out of Julio’s prized arm and once the season gets into the later stages they can transition him back into a starting role and work up his pitch count.  Then if all goes well the Dodgers would have a top tier playoff rotation of Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Rich Hill, and Julio Urias.

While the Dodgers handling of Urias has been questioned many times this season they truly have a reason to limit his innings.  Urias had a major shoulder surgery that is rare compared to Tommy John surgery, and the exact science of coming back from it is not as documented as TJ surgery.  Scott Alexander had anterior capsule surgery but he has always been a reliever and did not have to shoulder 100 plus innings of work in a single season.

As it’s been stated many times, the Dodgers’ starting pitching depth is the best in baseball and the best team needs to be fielded in October.  With the Dodgers almost a lock to win the NL West division for a seventh straight season, the best plan is the one that enables Urias to make starts in the postseason.  Tinkering with Julio’s pitching routine wasn’t the best idea earlier in his career, but coming off shoulder surgery, it is warranted.