Los Angeles Dodgers: The must-watch battle for the fifth rotation spot

Julio Urias

This one is the trickiest for the Los Angeles Dodgers to manage. If it were up to me, I would love to see Julio Urias in the starting rotation. I have been a massive fan of Urias since the Dodgers signed him as a teenager and he hasn’t even come close to scratching the surface of what he is capable of.

The reason for that is the anterior capsule surgery that Urias had on his throwing shoulder in 2017. Most pitchers cannot come back from this surgery the same guy and it took Urias over a year before he got back on a big league mound.

Urias was called back up to the big leagues after over a month of rehab in the minor leagues as a member of the extended roster for September. The Dodgers only used Urias in games with a wide margin to help protect him as well as ensure he did not hurt the team’s division run.

That is why it was a huge surprise when Urias was included on the playoff roster and actually became the left-handed specialist that the Dodgers used against Christian Yelich in the NLCS.

Urias is still a long way from being a season-long starter and the Dodgers have an innings cap on him this season. That could lead to the team using him primarily in the bullpen but that could hurt his progression as a starter.

However, if the Dodgers use him in the starting rotation they could burn through his innings cap early in the year. He needs to get used to making starts every five days but the last thing the Dodgers want is Urias to have a great season and get shut down in August.

Urias has perennial ace potential and has been groomed to be the successor to Clayton Kershaw his entire career. His ceiling is still higher than Walker Buehler’s, who he is still younger than.

It might be another two years before we see Urias put together all-star numbers but the fact remains that he has the potential to be an elite arm for a long, long time.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are smart to want to protect that. However, I would not blame them if Urias became a huge part of another World Series push, so long that he feels okay.