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Jose Urena Elects Free Agency

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Veteran righty José Ureña elected free agency, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He evidently went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment by the Dodgers on Tuesday.

Ureña made two appearances after signing with L.A. on June 3. He tossed three innings of one-run ball, recording two strikeouts with one walk. Ureña has now suited up for three MLB teams this season. He has also logged time with the Mets and Blue Jays, managing 18 1/3 innings over a combined nine appearances. Ureña has punched out 10 against five walks while recording a 5.40 earned run average in that time.

The 33-year-old righty will again look for an opportunity to pitch in a swing capacity. While he has bounced around this year, Ureña held a spot on the Texas pitching staff throughout the ’24 season. He posted a 3.80 ERA while getting ground-balls at a 50% clip in 109 innings for the Rangers. Ureña has never had good strikeout and walk numbers, but his sinker averages 96-97 MPH and he’s capable of covering multiple innings.

Dodgers Recall Matt Sauer, DFA José Ureña

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3:50pm: It’s now official, with the Dodgers announcing they have recalled Sauer and designated Ureña for assignment.

8:03am: Speaking to reporters (including The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya) after last night’s extra-innings victory over the Padres, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts revealed that the team is planning to recall right-hander Matt Sauer from Triple-A. Sauer is already with the team in San Diego as a member of the taxi squad, but the Dodgers will need to formally add him to the roster before he can pitch this evening. To do so, they will designate veteran righty José Ureña for assignment (per Ardaya).

Drafted by the Yankees in 2017, Sauer made his MLB debut last season with the Royals, who had selected him in the Rule 5 draft. However, Kansas City DFA’d him after he gave up 14 runs in his first 14 games, and he returned to finish out the season in New York’s farm system. The righty elected free agency this past offseason and signed a minor league contract with the Dodgers in December. This will already be Sauer’s fifth stint with the Dodgers this year. He made the travel roster for the Tokyo Series (although he did not appear in a game) and has since been optioned and recalled several times. All told, he has thrown 20 2/3 innings over seven appearances, allowing nine runs (seven earned) on 16 hits. The 26-year-old has only struck out 13 batters (16.7% K%), but his low walk rate (3.8%) and high groundball rate (49.2%) have helped him keep runners off the bases and runs off the board. As has been the case each previous time he was recalled, Sauer isn’t likely to stick around on L.A.’s 26-man roster for long. That said, a player can only be optioned five times in a season, so the next time the Dodgers option him will be the last.

Due to the Dodgers limited rotation depth – Tony Gonsolin recently joined fellow starters Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Emmet Sheehan, River Ryan, Kyle Hurt and Gavin Stone on the IL – Sauer is likely to pitch multiple innings as part of a bullpen game today. However, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register suggests he will probably come in after an opener rather than start the game.

Ureña signed with the Dodgers last week, shortly after the Blue Jays DFA’d him. As Ardaya notes, the Dodgers will only be on the hook for a prorated portion of the league minimum salary for the few days he spent on their active roster. In that time, Ureña made two appearances for L.A., giving up one run on four hits over three innings. Altogether, he has pitched 18 1/3 innings this season for the Mets, Blue Jays, and Dodgers, with a 5.40 ERA and 5.09 SIERA to show for it. Considering his long MLB track record and versatility – he can pitch into the fifth inning as a starter or touch 98 mph out of the bullpen – he shouldn’t have trouble latching on somewhere else. The journeyman might not be seeing the same success he enjoyed with the Rangers in 2024 (3.80 ERA in 109 IP), but there’s a reason three contending clubs have put him on their roster this season.

Dodgers Sign José Ureña

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8:03pm: Los Angeles officially announced the Ureña deal and reported DFA of Chuckie Robinson. They optioned Will Klein to Triple-A in a corresponding active roster move.

11:38am: The Dodgers are signing right-hander José Ureña, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. He’s expected to be in Los Angeles tonight to join their staff against the Mets, for whom he pitched earlier this year (albeit just one appearance). That suggests Ureña, a client of Premier Talent Sports & Entertainment, has agreed to a major league contract. Ureña is indeed getting a major league contract, per Alden González of ESPN.

Ureña, 33, just elected free agency yesterday. He’d been with the Blue Jays since early May and pitched reasonably well for Toronto but was cut loose when the Jays needed a fresh arm. He’ll at least temporarily join an injury-plagued Dodger bullpen that has seen significant turnover amid injuries to Evan Phillips, Kirby Yates, Blake Treinen and Luis García, among others.

Though Ureña’s time with the Jays resulted in a solid 3.65 ERA through 12 1/3 frames, he coupled that with an ugly 5-to-3 K/BB ratio and also served up three home runs. His 9.5% swinging-strike rate is noticeably south of the 11.3% league-average mark for a reliever, and opponents made contact on 88.8% of his pitches within the zone — a good bit higher than the 85% league average. Those red flags and the fact that he was on a minimal contract after signing under similar circumstances to the ones seen here with the Dodgers, made Toronto comfortable moving on.

Ureña throws hard but has a spotty track record in the big leagues. He was a solid starting pitcher with the Marlins early in his career, posting a 3.90 ERA in 343 2/3 innings from 2017-18. Declines in his command and his ability to keep the ball in the park plagued him for several years thereafter and caused him to begin to bounce around the league; from 2019-23, Ureña pitched a very similar number of innings to that ’17-’18 run  (350 1/3) but did so with a bleak 5.50 ERA while suiting up for five different clubs.

A 2024 stint with the Rangers revitalized Ureña’s career to an extent. He was a valuable swingman in Texas last season, piling up 109 innings with a 3.80 ERA and a much-improved 8.4% walk rate — albeit in conjunction with a 15.4% strikeout rate that ranked near the bottom of the league.

The Dodgers’ bullpen is in shambles, with Phillips recently learning he’ll require season-ending Tommy John surgery. That’s the most notable but hardly the only injury. Yates has missed more than two weeks with a hamstring strain. García hit the injured list over the weekend due to a groin strain. Treinen has been out since April due to a forearm strain. Michael Kopech and Brusdar Graterol haven’t pitched at all in 2025 — the former due to an offseason forearm strain and the latter due to offseason shoulder surgery.

With the relief corps reeling, the Dodgers have recently brought in a fresh wave of arms. Lou Trivino, like Ureña, was signed after being cut loose by another club (the division-rival Giants, in Trivino’s case). He’s been excellent in 8 1/3 innings. Righty Ryan Loutos was acquired from the Cardinals in exchange for cash after being designated for assignment. Another righty, Will Klein, joined the team just yesterday after the Dodgers and Mariners swapped minor league arms; Seattle picked up lefty Joe Jacques from L.A. in that deal. Chris Stratton briefly signed in L.A. after his release in Kansas City but has since been designated for assignment. Former Reds closer Alexis Diaz was also added in a recent trade, though he’s in Triple-A Oklahoma City at the moment.

The Dodgers will need to open a 40-man spot for Ureña. They’re currently at capacity in that regard, and while they’ve had a mountain of injuries pile up they’re currently without a clear candidate to move to the 60-day IL. If the Dodgers think Diaz’s salary will allow him to pass through waivers, they could designate him for assignment and try to stash him in Triple-A that way. Loutos struggled in his lone MLB inning but has been sharp in Triple-A since his acquisition. Righty Noah Davis, a depth pickup back in March, has struggled both in OKC and in the majors, which could put him at risk as well.

Dodgers To Designate Chuckie Robinson For Assignment

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The Dodgers are going to designate catcher Chuckie Robinson for assignment, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. That will be the corresponding 40-man move for signing right-hander José Ureña, which was previously reported. The Dodgers will also have to make a corresponding active roster move for Ureña.

Robinson, 30, was just claimed off waivers from the Angels a few days ago. He was a sensible addition, since the club recently subtracted some catching depth. They called up prospect Dalton Rushing to pair with Will Smith at the big league level, with Austin Barnes designated for assignment. They still had Hunter Feduccia and Chris Okey as depth options at Triple-A but Robinson could have joined them.

Instead, he’s been bumped off by the constant churn of pitchers through the club’s bullpen. The Dodgers have been rotating pitchers on and off the roster almost daily, in part due to a huge slate of injuries, with 15 different pitchers currently on the IL.

Robinson will likely head back to the waiver wire in the coming days. His major league track record is both limited and uninspiring, with a .132/.170/.194 line in 136 plate appearances. Naturally, his minor league track record is greater in quality and quantity. Dating back to the start of 2021, he has stepped to the plate 1,204 times on the farm with a .268/.333/.412 line and 91 wRC+. He has also received praised for his glovework behind the plate.

He is still optionable for the rest of this year and one additional season, so he could appeal to clubs in need of some extra catching depth. If he clears waivers, he would have the right to elect free agency since he has a previous career outright.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

Jose Urena Elects Free Agency

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José Ureña elected free agency, the Blue Jays told reporters (including Mitch Bannon of The Athletic). Toronto designated the veteran righty for assignment on Saturday. He went unclaimed on waivers and had the service time to decline an outright.

Ureña spent less than a month with the Jays. Toronto signed him to a big league deal in early May. He made one spot start as the Jays were cycling through pitchers to fill the #5 rotation job. Ureña made another two-inning start as a quasi-opener in front of Eric Lauer. He has otherwise been working in 1-2 inning stints as a low-leverage reliever.

The 33-year-old Ureña pitched 12 1/3 innings. His five runs allowed are reasonable, but that came despite a 5:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio and three homers. It’s tough to see that approach working long term, so the Jays pulled the plug over the weekend. Ureña had an even briefer stint with the Mets earlier this year. New York carried him on the active roster for three days between late April and early May. He made one three-inning appearance as a Met.

Ureña figures to land another minor league contract. He has a long track record as a swingman over an MLB career that has spanned parts of 11 seasons. He managed 109 innings across 33 appearances (nine starts) with the Rangers last year, turning in a 3.80 ERA despite a below-average 15.1% strikeout rate.

Blue Jays Designate Jose Urena For Assignment

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The Blue Jays announced that right-hander Jose Urena has been designated for assignment.  The move opens up a roster spot for southpaw Easton Lucas, who will likely cover some innings what is slated to be a bullpen day for the Jays in today’s matchup with the Athletics.

Urena signed a guaranteed contract with Toronto in early May, just a few days after he was designated for assignment by the Mets and then entered free agency (Urena was able to reject the Mets’ outright assignment in favor of free agency since he has been previously outrighted in his career).  Over his six games with the Jays, Urena made two starts and tossed a total of 12 1/3 innings while pitching to a 3.65 ERA.

With only a 9.6% strikeout rate in that brief stint with the Jays, Urena’s ERA significantly outperformed his peripherals, so the club is apparently willing to risk losing Urena in order to get a fresh arm onto the pitching staff.  Should Urena clear waivers, he’ll again have the option of either electing free agency or accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A.  Given the Blue Jays’ lack of rotation depth, a case can be made that sticking in the organization may give Urena another shot at the big leagues in relatively short order.

The fifth spot in the Jays’ rotation has been a revolving door since Max Scherzer went on the injured list after his first start of the season.  Lucas has received four starts, and Braydon Fisher (who has a spotless ERA over his first career 8 1/3 innings) will make his first Major League start today against the A’s.  Recent signing Eric Lauer has started two of his six games in a Blue Jays uniform, and the recently-signed Spencer Turnbull may yet factor into the rotation picture before Scherzer is ready to return.

Blue Jays Sign José Ureña

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Today: The Blue Jays officially announced Ureña’s one-year major league contract on Monday and optioned Josh Walker to Triple-A to open a space on the active roster. To make room for Ureña and fellow free agent signing Spencer Turnbull on the 40-man, the Blue Jays transferred Max Scherzer and Erik Swanson to the 60-day injured list. This pushes back Scherzer’s and Swanson’s return timelines to late May at the earliest.

May 3: The Blue Jays have agreed to a major league contract with right-hander José Ureña, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post. This signing comes on the heels of the news that Toronto has also agreed to terms with right-hander Spencer Turnbull.

Ureña, 33, signed a minor league contract with the Mets in February. While he failed to make the Opening Day roster out of camp, he made three starts at Triple-A Syracuse and earned a promotion when the Mets needed an extra arm in late April. However, he struggled badly in his one appearance, giving up five earned runs in three innings, and the Mets DFA’d him two days later. The Blue Jays, desperately in need of pitching depth, pounced quickly, signing the righty less than two days after he elected free agency. Unlike Turnbull, who has not pitched in a game since a lone minor league rehab appearance last September, Ureña should be ready to contribute to the major league team right away.

Now in his 11th big league season, Ureña has been one of the league’s more prolific swingmen throughout his career. Since his debut in 2015, he is one of just two pitchers with at least 150 starts and 75 relief appearances. With a career 4.80 ERA and 4.92 SIERA, he has never been much more than an innings eater, but an innings eater is certainly something the Blue Jays could use right now.

Toronto entered the 2025 season with a rotation of Kevin Gausman, José Berríos, Chris Bassitt, Max Scherzer, and Bowden Francis. Yariel Rodríguez, who started 21 games in his rookie season, moved to the bullpen. As a result, when Scherzer hit the IL with an injured thumb after his first start of the season, the Blue Jays were left with very little rotation depth. Easton Lucas crumbled after two strong starts. Similarly, long-man Paxton Schultz hit a wall in his second big league appearance after turning heads with a dominant debut. Eric Lauer was solid in his first appearance for the Jays, but he’s hardly a reliable long-term answer. Top prospect Jake Bloss, who struggled in three big league starts with Houston last season, has also struggled at Triple-A. Thus, general manager Ross Atkins made it clear on Friday that he was looking to add rotation depth in free agency. He quickly made good on his word this morning, signing both Ureña and Turnbull to major league deals. Turnbull has the much higher ceiling of the two, but Ureña is a more immediate solution. There is a good chance he will make at least a couple of starts, but he can also offer relief to a bullpen that has been cycling through arms all season.

Jose Urena Elects Free Agency

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Right-hander Jose Urena has elected free agency, according to a report from MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo. Urena was designated for assignment by the Mets earlier this week to make room for Kevin Herget on the active roster. Evidently, Urena has cleared waivers and opted to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency. A player with at least three years of service time or a previous outright at any point in his career has the opportunity to elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment. Both of those situations apply to Urena, who will now have the opportunity to explore opportunities with any of MLB’s 30 clubs.

The 33-year-old righty has now appeared in parts of 11 seasons in the majors. He began his career as a member of the Marlins and mostly pitched in a swing role to below average results, though he did manage to post a solid 3.90 ERA (100 ERA+) in 343 2/3 innings of work from 2017 to 2018. Since departing the Marlins following the shortened 2020 season, Urena has bounced around the league as a mostly below-average depth option primarily used on non-contending teams, with a 5.13 ERA (84 ERA+) and a matching 5.13 FIP across the past five seasons while pitching for the Tigers, White Sox, Rockies, Brewers, Rangers, and Mets.

His stint with the Rangers last year is by far the most interesting of his stops along the way. Urena returned to his familiar swing-man role with Texas but mostly pitched in multi-inning relief last year. Overall, he posted a rather pedestrian 3.80 ERA (103 ERA+) with a 4.62 FIP, but a closer look reveals that an excellent 2.92 ERA in 64 2/3 as a reliever, as opposed to his lackluster 5.08 ERA in nine starts. Urena’s 16.4% strikeout rate while pitching in relief last year was still far enough below average to be a potential red flag, but his ability to pitch multiple innings and solid run prevention numbers were enough to make him at least an intriguing depth candidate heading into this offseason.

Unfortunately for the journeyman, teams weren’t interested enough in seeing what he could do to give him a major league deal this winter. That left him to sign a minor league pact with the Mets over the offseason, though he initially failed to make the club’s roster out of camp. He stuck in the organization afterwards and was selected to the roster a few days ago, but he surrendered five earned runs in just three innings of work during his lone appearance before being designated for assignment. Whether he’ll re-sign in the Mets org and return to Triple-A Syracuse or look for a deal elsewhere remains to be seen, but despite his generally below-average results Urena’s ability to be a versatile and durable depth option should be enough to earn him attention from at least some teams around the league.

Mets Designate José Ureña For Assignment

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The Mets officially announced their previously-reported deal for left-hander Brooks Raley, with Sean Manaea transferred to the 60-day injured list. Raley, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery, was promptly placed on the 15-day IL. The Mets also recalled right-hander Kevin Herget to the big league team. Right-hander José Ureña has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move for Herget. Tim Healey of Newsday reported the moves prior to the official announcement.

Ureña, 33, was selected to the club’s roster on Sunday. The Mets had leaned heavily on their bullpen in the prior days. Since Ureña had been pitching out of the Triple-A rotation, he gave them an arm capable of covering multiple innings.

Yesterday, the Mets stomped the Nationals with a 19-5 victory. It was 11-0 after six and a half, when Ureña came in to cover the final three frames. He allowed five earned runs but managed to largely give the bullpen a night off, apart from Max Kranick pitching one inning before Ureña entered.

It took Ureña 68 pitches to get through those three innings, so he might not have been available for a few days. Rather than have him taking up a roster spot while unavailable, the Mets are bringing up a fresh arm in Herget. Since Ureña is a veteran with far more than five years of major league service time, he can’t be optioned to the minors without his consent. He has been bumped off the 40-man entirely and will likely be put on waivers in the coming days.

It’s possible the veteran could garner interest from other clubs who need an innings eater. The Blue Jays just claimed Casey Lawrence, for instance, a somewhat similar veteran capable of tossing multiple relief innings. Ureña has a longer track record than Lawrence, with 951 1/3 career innings with a 4.80 earned run average. If goes unclaimed, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency.

As for Manaea, this doesn’t change anything about his outlook. The 60-day count is retroactive to his initial placement on the 15-day IL, which was at the start of the season. He can therefore be reinstated by late May, which doesn’t seem to be a realistic possibility. He has been out all year with an oblique strain. He suffered a setback in early April and was to be shut down for another couple of weeks. It’s unclear when he’ll be ready to get into game action as part of a rehab assignment.

Even if he were to start such an assignment right now, he would likely need more than a month to get into game shape anyway as an unofficial spring training. That means this 60-day IL transfer was an inevitable formality.

Photo courtesy of Brad Penner, Imagn Images

Mets Select Jose Urena

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The Mets announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Jose Urena. Urena will replace southpaw A.J. Minter on the roster as the southpaw heads to the 15-day injured list due to a left lat strain. Minter’s placement on the shelf is hardly a surprise, as he exited yesterday’s game with what was termed triceps soreness at the time. The Mets have a 40-man roster spot open, so no corresponding move was necessary.

Urena, 33, has pitched in the majors for parts of ten seasons but has struggled to post average results throughout most of his career. The righty debuted with the Marlins back in 2015 and spent the first two years of his career struggling badly in the majors in a swing role, though he converted to the rotation full-time in 2017 and had a solid two-season run as an effective back-end starter. From 2017 to 2018, Urena pitched to a league average 3.90 ERA despite a microscopic 16.9% strikeout rate, though his well-below average 4.68 FIP suggested regression was likely not far away. That came to pass during his final two seasons with the Marlins, where he posted a 5.25 ERA and 5.02 FIP in 108 frames before being designated for assignment shortly after the 2020 season concluded.

In the years following his departure from Miami, Urena was typically used as a back-end starter or swingman while bouncing around various clubs outside of the playoff picture. From 2021 to 2023, the right-hander pitched for the Tigers, Rockies, Brewers, and White Sox with a combined 5.61 ERA and 5.29 FIP in 242 1/3 innings of work. He struck out just 14.6% of his opponents while walking 9.8% during that time, leaving him with weak ratios that even a 50.2% groundball rate couldn’t make up for.

Lackluster as his performance in the majors had been over the years, however, Urena managed to turn things around in Texas last year. He signed a minor league deal with the Rangers during the 2023-24 offseason and managed to crack the club’s Opening Day roster as a long reliever. He joined the rotation for a brief stretch in May and June but mostly pitched out of the bullpen, and did multi-inning relief work with intriguing effectiveness. While he still punched out just 15.1% of his opponents, his 8.4% walk rate was a bit more palatable and he maintained his strong grounder rate while adding a tick of velocity to his fastball and managing to give up fewer homers. In all, he posted a 3.80 ERA with a 4.62 FIP in 109 innings, though his 2.92 ERA in 64 2/3 frames of relief work was more impressive than his 5.08 ERA in nine starts.

Despite the improvements in his performance, Urena’s shaky work in the rotation and lack of strikeouts limited him to minor league deals once again this winter, and he eventually landed with the Mets. The righty had the ability to opt-out of his deal with the club before Opening Day but instead opted to stick with the club and pitch at Triple-A until an opportunity arose in Queens. That patience has now paid off, and he’ll join the big league roster as a multi-inning relief option or potential sixth starter should one be necessary at some point.

As for Minter, the extent of his injury won’t be known until results of the imaging he’s expected to undergo today are announced. Regardless, the Mets are clearly confident he’ll be down for long enough to justify holding him out for at least the next 15 days. That leaves Danny Young as the only left-handed option in the Mets’ bullpen for the time being, though Genesis Cabrera and Anthony Gose are both available as non-roster depth options in the minor leagues.

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