Dodgers: 5 players that prove LAD already has its next championship team in the works

4. Julio Urias

Need a lefty No. 2 behind Buehler? Here’s your guy … as long as the Dodgers keep him in the starting rotation.

Julio Urias recorded the final out of the 2020 World Series and immediately became a franchise legend. At just 24 years old, the left-hander has appeared in 76 career games (40 starts) and owns a 3.18 ERA and 1.24 WHIP with 241 strikeouts in 251.2 innings of work.

In the postseason? He’s 6-2 with a 2.79 ERA, 0.85 WHIP and 39 strikeouts in 38.2 innings (18 total games, three starts).

Though he’s mostly been deployed as a hybrid pitching weapon, that’s sure to change as he continues to build up his strength after seeing limited time in 2017 and 2018 due to injuries and off-the-field issues. If his career hadn’t been interrupted by that, he might already be a mainstay in this rotation.

But he opens the 2021 season as a full-time starter for the first time in his big-league career and the Dodgers are likely hoping this is where he’ll be for the next decade or so. Already, he’s 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA and 1.03 WHIP in his first two outings. He also barely surrenders home runs (0.7 per nine innings for his career), so that’ll support his narrative as a crafty lefty.