Julio Urias could be the next top prospect to be called up

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Baseball fans were spoiled last season by the Year of the Prospect, with guys like Carlos Correa, Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, Francisco Lindor and Noah Syndergaard coming up and having immediate success. This year’s crop isn’t as impressive — which isn’t saying much, because no class could compete with 2015 — but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any exciting prospects coming up. Just last week, we saw the debuts of Jose Berrios, Sean Manaea and Michael Fulmer. The trend of star pitching prospects could be continuing soon, as the Dodgers are reportedly considering calling phenom Julio Urias up to their major-league roster.

Urias has been on the prospect radar for a few years now, which is amazing considering he’s only in his age-19 season. He certainly doesn’t pitch like someone his age, as he was a top-five prospect heading into the season. His stock has only improved through the early parts of 2016, what with his 29 strikeouts and three walks with a 1.88 ERA over 24 innings of work. Oh yeah, that’s also coming in the Pacific Coast League, a notoriously bad league for pitchers. Oh yeah, he’s also the youngest player in the league, with Manuel Margot coming in as the next-youngest. Margot is over two years older than Urias. He’s a fascinating prospect who has a relatively safe profile for a pitcher of his age. Of course, that’s a low bar to judge by and, like any pitching prospect, there is a significant bust chance.

Still, the Dodgers clearly believe the talent is there for him to help out at the highest level right now. The weird part, however, is that he’d be called up for bullpen help. On the one hand, Los Angeles could certainly use some talented relievers, since their bullpen is in the bottom third of the league by both ERA and FIP. Urias is clearly an upgrade in that group. However, the biggest weakness on his résumé is a lack of innings. He’s never thrown more than 87 in a season as a professional, so getting him a starter’s workload for at least most of the season might be best for his future development. It’s a hard line to walk for the Dodgers. They want to compete for a World Series this year, but they also want to sustain this run for years to come. At the end of the day, putting Urias in the bullpen likely wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it’s also not ideal for his development. It will be fascinating to watch the Dodgers try to walk that fine line.