Los Angeles Dodgers: Players that will shock the MLB world in 2019
By Jason Reed
2. Julio Urias
Dodger fans already know where I am getting as with this one but the rest of the MLB world is likely unaware of what Julio Urias capable of and what he is going to accomplish in 2019.
Urias came up through the Dodgers organization as a wonder kid and was always a highly-touted prospect and was the top left-handed pitching prospect before his debut in 2016. Urias was just 19 years old when he made his MLB debut and was already baffling hitters and even pitched quality innings in that year’s NLDS.
It is crazy what Urias is capable of and the MLB world started to get a taste of that before he needed to get anterior capsule surgery on his throwing shoulder in 2017, which held him out of action until the end of the 2018 season.
Urias not being around and the emergence of Walker Buehler has led to him falling out of the spotlight. However, Urias is still two years younger than Buehler is and arguably has a ceiling that is higher than Buehler’s.
Urias has legitimate Cy Young potential and the rotation, led by Buehler and Urias, is going to be absolutely insane for the coming half-decade.
Urias is not going to put up Cy Young numbers yet and might not even be an all-star due to his workload but he is going to baffle MLB hitters and put together some of the most impressive performances for a young pitcher that the league has seen.
He is on an innings limit, which is why he might not have a big enough sample size to be an all-star but he is certainly going to be all-star-caliber this year as he makes that transition to being an elite arm.