Dodgers: Julio Urias could become first NL 20-game winner in years

The Los Angeles Dodgers are bursting at the seams with pitching talent, but one of the more intriguing arms to watch over the course of this season has been young southpaw Julio Urias.

After being used as a reliever early in his career and during the postseason last year, LA stuck him in the rotation in 2021.

While he got some big outs in relief for the Dodgers, including the out that clinched the World Series, the Dodgers clearly saw that Urias’ future is in the rotation.

Even in a rotation that features several future Hall of Famers, Urias has been must-see TV.

Urias’ blistering fastball and hard-turning breaking ball haven’t lost one bit of their quality as a starter. Despite pitching alongside two Cy Young favorites in Max Scherzer and Walker Buehler, it might be Urias who become the first senior circuit pitcher in half a decade to accomplish a very rare feat.

Urias is now 17-3 on the year with a 2.98 ERA. With a few more victories, he could become the first pitcher in the National League to win 20 games in a season since his teammate Scherzer did it with the Washington Nationals in the 2016 campaign. This goes to show Urias’ meteoric rise from solid starter to borderline ace.

Dodgers lefty Julio Urias is closing in on 20 wins.

2021 was going to be a pivotal season for Urias, as LA would finally get to see if his arm and frame could withstand the strain and pressure that comes with eating up innings as a starter consistently. He has not only survived in this role, but he’s also thrived.

The Dodgers are now 22-6 in games Urias has pitched. The only other Dodgers pitchers since 1970 with a winning percentage that high are Clayton Kershaw, who had the best ERA in the league and was second in Cy Young voting in 2017, and Zack Greinke, who went 15-4 with a 2.63 ERA in 2013.

Even though the Dodgers have a few greybeards in the rotation, any rotation that is anchored by Buehler, Urias, and a potentially healthy Dustin May will rank among the best in the league for years to come.

While the win might not be as valuable a stat as it used to be with regards to evaluating pitching talent, any time a team can win 17 of 20 decisions and 22 of 28 starts when a particular pitcher is on the bump, they’re doing something right.

This may not be the only time in his career that Urias challenges this particular benchmark, as with his combination of stuff and pitching know-how, winning 20 games doesn’t seem like such a farfetched goal.

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