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Dodgers, Julio Urias Avoid Arbitration

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The Dodgers are in agreement with starter Julio Urías on a $14.25MM salary for the 2023 season, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter link). The sides avoid a hearing for the left-hander’s final season of arbitration eligibility.

Urías has emerged as one of the game’s top pitchers. He’s somehow never made an All-Star team but finished in the top ten in NL Cy Young balloting in each of the last two seasons, including a third-place finish in 2022. The Mexico native led the National League with a 2.16 ERA across 175 innings, his second straight sub-3.00 campaign. Since firmly establishing himself in the Los Angeles rotation in 2020, he carries a 2.66 ERA and has held opponents to a .210/.262/.345 line over 415 2/3 frames.

Once regarded as the sport’s top pitching prospect, Urías was in the majors before his 20th birthday. He’s still just 26 years old but has already crossed the five-year service threshold. Barring an extension, he’ll be a free agent next offseason. If he has another season like either of his past two, he’d be the top starting pitcher available on the open market (aside from two-way star Shohei Ohtani). Given his youth and production, Urías could plausibly eclipse the $200MM mark next winter.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Urías for a $13.7MM salary for his final arbitration year. His actual deal comes in a bit above that mark, representing a notable raise on last season’s $8MM figure.

Sandy Alcantara Wins National League Cy Young Award

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Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara has won the National League Cy Young award, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced. It was a unanimous victory, with Alcantara receiving all 30 first place votes. He was followed in the voting by Max Fried of the Braves and Julio Urías of the Dodgers.

Alcantara has been the presumptive favorite for quite some time, and the unanimous voting serves as a particular testament to the caliber of season he put together. The right-hander easily lapped the field in innings, soaking up 228 2/3 frames that cleared second-place finisher Aaron Nola by 23 2/3. Alcantara and Nola were the only Senior Circuit pitchers to throw multiple complete games; Nola went the distance twice, while Alcantara did so six times. He also faced a league-leading 886 batters, with Nola’s 807 batters faced an extremely distant second.

That kind of throwback, workhorse mentality was part of what set Alcantara apart from the rest of the league, but he continued to perform brilliantly on a rate basis. Among NL starters with 100+ innings, he ranked fourth in ERA (2.28) and sixth in ground-ball percentage (53.4%). His 23.4% strikeout percentage was more good than elite, but he rarely issued free passes and kept the ball on the ground while consistently going deep into games.

Along the way, the 27-year-old earned the second All-Star nod of his career. Alcantara had posted an ERA between 3.00 and 4.00 in each of his first four seasons with the Fish to emerge as a top-of-the-rotation caliber arm. Miami inked him to a $56MM extension last offseason, a deal that extended their window of control through 2027. That seemed a strong move for general manager Kim Ng and her staff at the time, and it now stands as an absolute bargain with Alcantara cementing himself upon the game’s top handful of pitchers.

It’s the first Cy Young nod for the native of the Dominican Republic, who’d never previously appeared on an awards ballot. Fried and Urías each picked up some support for the second time. The Atlanta southpaw finished fifth in Cy Young balloting in 2020, while the L.A. hurler placed seventh last year. Both earned a top-three placement for the first time this year, with sub-2.50 ERA showings. Fried twirled 185 1/3 innings of 2.48 ball, while Urías led qualified starters with a 2.16 ERA.

Fried picked up 10 second-place votes, and Urías was the runner-up on seven ballots. Nola, Zac Gallen, Carlos Rodón, Corbin Burnes and Edwin Díaz were the other players to receive at least one second-place vote. Nola and Gallen placed fourth and fifth, respectively. Rodón, Burnes, Díaz, Yu Darvish, Kyle Wright, Logan Webb and Ryan Helsley were the other players to appear on a ballot.

Full voting breakdown available here.

Dodgers Activate Julio Urias, Designate Neftali Feliz For Assignment

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The Dodgers announced they’ve activated Julio Urías from the 10-day injured list. He’ll get the ball for this evening’s game against the Padres. To open active roster space, reliever Neftalí Féliz was designated for assignment. The move also opens a spot on Los Angeles’ 40-man roster, which now sits at 39.

Urías missed the minimal ten days after landing on the IL with a left calf contusion. The IL stint only cost Urías one start and served as a brief breather for the 25-year-old, who has already worked a career-high 139 2/3 innings this season. The left-hander has been excellent, posting a 3.29 ERA with an above-average 26.4% strikeout rate and a tiny 5.3% walk percentage.

That kind of reliability has been critical for a Dodgers rotation that has dealt with its share of injuries. Most notably, Clayton Kershaw has been out since July 7 with forearm inflammation. Kershaw threw a 20-pitch bullpen session consisting of only fastballs today, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register). That’s obviously progress, but Roberts later acknowledged there’s some uncertainty about whether the three-time Cy Young Award winner would have enough time to build back arm strength to shoulder a traditional starting pitcher’s workload for the remainder of the season (via Juan Toribio of MLB.com).

Urías’ return to the roster could end Féliz’s Dodger tenure after a single appearance. The former Rangers’ closer was selected to the big league roster last week and pitched for the first time on Sunday against the Mets. He tossed a scoreless inning with a strikeout but will now find himself on waivers in the coming days. Féliz has been excellent this season at the Triple-A level, combining for a 2.45 ERA with a huge 38.8% strikeout rate and an average 9.7% walk percentage between the Phillies’ and Dodgers’ top affiliates.

Dodgers Place Julio Urias On 10-Day Injured List

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The Dodgers have placed left-hander Julio Urias on the 10-day injured list due to a left calf contusion.  The open roster spot will be filled by utilityman Zach McKinstry, who has been recalled from Triple-A.

Urias was hit by a pitch in his left calf during last night’s 6-5 Dodgers win over the Mets, though the southpaw went on to pitch two more innings after sustaining the injury.  Assuming that this IL placement is only related to that incident, this could be a pretty minimal absence for Urias, who could end up missing only one start due to an August 23 off-day on the Dodgers’ schedule.  It would leave Los Angeles even more short-handed in the rotation, but the team could conceivably cover Urias’ one missed outing with a bullpen game.

Amidst all of the Dodgers’ pitching injuries, Urias (whose 25th birthday was two days ago) has been a source of stability, tossing 139 2/3 innings over 24 starts.  He has also has an above-average 26.4% strikeout rate and an outstanding 5.3% walk rate while posting a 3.29 ERA.  After playing a huge role in the Dodgers’ championship run last October, Urias looks poised to deliver more important innings for the team this postseason.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: 1/15/21

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The deadline to exchange arbitration figures is today at 1pm ET. As of this morning, there were 125 arbitration-eligible players who’d yet to agree to terms on their contract for the upcoming 2021 season. Arbitration is muddier than ever before thanks to the shortened 2020 schedule, which most believe will lead to record number of arb hearings this winter. Be that as it may, it’s still reasonable to expect dozens of contractual agreements to filter in over the next couple of hours.

We’ll highlight some of the more high-profile cases in separate posts with more in-depth breakdowns, but the majority of today’s dealings will be smaller-scale increases that don’t radically alter a team’s payroll or a player’s trade candidacy. As such, we’ll just run through most of today’s agreements in this post.

I’ve embedded MLBTR’s 2021 Arbitration Tracker in the post (those in the mobile app or viewing on mobile web will want to turn their phones sideways). Our tracker can be sorted by team, by service time and/or by Super Two status, allowing users to check the status on whichever groups of players they like. You can also check out Matt Swartz’s projected arbitration salaries for this year’s class, and we’ll do a quick sentence on each player’s agreement at the bottom of this post as well, with the most recent agreements sitting atop the list.

Today’s Agreements (chronologically, newest to oldest)

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Dodgers Considering Options For Game Seven Starter

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Dodgers manager Dave Roberts declined the opportunity to definitively name his game seven starter after tonight’s win, per J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group and others (via Twitter).

Tony Gonsolin lines up for the job after stepping in to start game two for Clayton Kershaw. Gonsolin is not the guy the Dodgers would plan in a vacuum to take the ball in a must-win moment, but he nonetheless remains the most likely to see chunk innings tomorrow night, per MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick (via Twitter). The 26-year-old Gonsolin served as as swingman the past two seasons for the Dodgers, performing ably to a 2.60 ERA/3.02 FIP across 86 2/3 innings. His game two start was his first and only postseason appearance, however. He lasted 4 1/3 innings, giving up 5 earned runs on 3 hits and 3 walks while striking out 7.

Kershaw will be on just two days rest after back spasms scratched him from his originally-scheduled game two start. Roberts will check in with him tomorrow to see about the possibility of appearing in relief, notes Gurnick. Kershaw in relief hasn’t always ended the way the Dodgers would have liked, including last postseason when he surrendered back-to-back home runs to Anthony Rendon and Juan Soto to tie a similar win-or-go-home game five of the NLDS. Still, he’s a weapon if he’s available. In that same game against the Nationals, remember, he entered the game to retire Adam Eaton – which he did, via strikeout. It was only when pushed to another inning that the Nats’ big guns got the best of him.

The Dodgers could turn to Julio Urías in a similar capacity, though Urías would be throwing on three days rest after tossing over 100 pitches in game three’s shellacking. After tonight, Walker Buehler is probably the only arm on the roster who is absolutely outside the realm of possibility. Closer Kenley Jansen could also be a difficult call. He’s returned to form, but an outing tomorrow night would be three consecutive games and four in the last five.

Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register put forth an interesting suggestion (via Twitter): Brusdar Graterol could function as an opener to be followed by Gonsolin and Urías. The hard-throwing Graterol has to be pretty high up the list in terms of likelihood of seeing action – especially since he didn’t make his way into game six. Putting him out there to start the game would certainly be interesting. He was a starter for most of his minor league career with the Twins, after all.

Dodgers To Start Julio Urias In Game 3 Of NLCS

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The Dodgers plan to start left-hander Julio Urias in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series against the Braves on Wednesday, J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group was among those to report. Meantime, they’re turning to Tony Gonsolin on Tuesday as a result of Clayton Kershaw’s back spasms.

The Dodgers, who finished the regular season with the majors’ top record (43-17), are unexpectedly in a hole right now after dropping Game 1 by a 5-1 score on Monday. That means if Gonsolin & Co. don’t get the job done this evening, the 24-year-old Urias could be facing an immense amount of pressure in his upcoming start.

Despite his young age, Urias is not a postseason greenhorn. He has already amassed 23 2/3 playoff innings and delivered a 3.42 ERA for his career, and he has thrown eight frames without allowing an earned run in two outings this fall. Before that, Urias gave the Dodgers 55 innings of 3.27 ERA/3.72 FIP ball with 7.36 K/9 and 2.95 BB/9 in 11 regular-season appearances and 10 starts.

Dodgers Mull Rotation Options

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Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has yet to name David Price’s replacement in the rotation, but Tony Gonsolin isn’t likely to claim the spot, writes J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group. Gonsolin certainly put together enough of an effort in 2019 (2.93 ERA/3.86 FIP across 11 appearances, six starts), but according to Roberts, the issue is that Gonsolin is behind his competitors in terms of building up the strength a starter needs to accumulate heavy usage.

In a vacuum, Ross Stripling would figure to be the top candidate to join Clayton Kershaw, Alex Wood, Julio Urias, and Walker Buehler in the rotation. Despite being temporarily traded to the Angels, Stripling’s been largely productive as a swingman and occasional starter for the Dodgers. While contributing between 74 and 122 innings over the last four seasons, Stripling has never had an ERA or FIP higher than 3.96, coming in his rookie season. In this environment, however, roles will have as much to do with readiness as past performance. Dustin May could certainly earn some consideration for the rotation, as could Dennis Santana. Edwin Uceta could also get a look. May, 22, has the highest upside of the group.

In other news from camp, the Dodgers added six players to their 60-man player pool, writes Hoornstra (via Twitter). Michael Busch, Anthony Garcia, Landon Knack, Bobby Miller, Ryan Pepiot, Edubray Ramos and Carson Taylor all join the pool as non-roster invitees.

Latest On Dodgers’ Pitching Plans

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The Dodgers have no shortage of options for their starting rotation. Even after trading Kenta Maeda to the Twins, Los Angeles has Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, David Price, Alex Wood, Julio Urías, Dustin May, Tony Gonsolin, Ross Stripling and Jimmy Nelson on the 40-man roster. So too is prospect Mitchell White, but he doesn’t figure to be in the mix out of the gate after posting a 6.50 ERA in 63.2 innings at Triple-A last year.

That’s plenty for manager Dave Roberts to work with, but he offered a bit of clarity on the situation today. Urías will open the season in the rotation, Roberts told reporters (including Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times). Gonsolin, it seems, will not be in that mix, Castillo adds. Roberts noted the 25-year-old has a chance to break camp with the club as a reliever, though.

A relief role is not in the cards for the club’s top pitching prospect. May is currently viewed as a starting pitcher only, Castillo relays. The 22-year-old thus seems likely to open the season in the rotation at Triple-A Oklahoma City, he adds.

None of this news is especially surprising, although it does shine some light on the situation. Gonsolin made six starts (and five relief appearances) for L.A. in 2019. The former ninth-rounder was effective in his 40 MLB innings, working to a 2.93 ERA with a 22.7% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and 41.7% ground ball rate. Impressively, he compiled a 4.35 ERA/4.38 FIP in 41.1 innings in the hitter-friendly PCL. Baseball America’s #82 overall prospect, Gonsolin’s long-term future is presumably still as a starter. Given the Dodgers’ pitching depth, though, it seems his immediate path to big league innings is in relief.

That won’t be the case for Urías, who actually worked mostly out of the bullpen in 2019. His results (2.49 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate, 38.7% ground ball rate) were even better than Gonsolin’s. That pen role was never expected to be permanent, though. Still just 23 and once the game’s consensus top pitching prospect, Urías’ 2019 innings were constrained a bit by health troubles. After logging nearly 80 innings last year, it seems he’s ready to shoulder a starter’s workload again.

May, too, served in a swing role in 2019 after making his MLB debut in August. BA’s #20 overall prospect, he showed well in his limited time in the show. He only made five starts at Triple-A before his promotion, though, and an early minor-league assignment, if indeed that comes to fruition, could help the club keep his innings in check as well.

If it weren’t clear already, Roberts has no problem deploying the pitching staff in a nontraditional manner. There’ll be ample innings to go around, and the club will surely rely on more than five of the names above to start games over the course of the year. If healthy, Buehler, Kershaw and Price seem like locks to take the ball every fifth day, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see a few different names penciled in behind them as the year progresses. That runoff should also aid a bullpen that is the closest thing the Dodgers have to a weakness. It’s an enviable situation for the NL West favorites.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: National League

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Entering the day, there were more than 150 players on the clock to exchange arbitration figures with their respective teams prior to a noon ET deadline. As one would expect, there’ll be an utter landslide of arbitration agreements in advance of that deadline. We already ran through some key facts and reminders on the arbitration process earlier this morning for those who are unfamiliar or simply need a refresher on one of MLB’s most complex idiosyncrasies, which will hopefully clear up many questions readers might have.

We’ll track the majority of the National League’s settlements in this post and are maintaining a separate one for American League settlements as well. Note that all projections referenced come courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz:

  • The Rockies have an agreement in place with righty Jon Gray, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post (via Twitter). It’s a $5.6MM deal, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link).
  • Outfielder Tommy Pham has struck a $7.9MM pact with the Padres, who acquired him at the outset of the offseason, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter). Other Friars striking deals, per an update from Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune, include Zach Davies ($5.25MM) and Matt Strahm ($1.4MM).
  • The Nationals announced that they’ve avoided arbitration with Trea Turner. It’s a $7.45MM agreement, per Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (via Twitter), right in range of the $7.5MM projection.
  • The Mets are in agreement with a laundry list of players. Right-handers Marcus Stroman ($12MM) and Noah Syndergaard ($9.7MM) were the top earners, per reports from MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter) and MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (via Twitter). Both come in close to their projected values of $11.8M and $9.9MM, respectively. The Mets also have a $5.1MM deal with reliever Edwin Diaz, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports (Twitter links). He entered the offseason projected at the $7.0MM level but will fall well shy of that. Despite an outstanding overall track record, Diaz’s platform season was a dud and obviously created some risk in a hearing for his side. Outfielder Brandon Nimmo will play for $2.175MM in his first season of arb eligibility, landing well over the $1.7MM that the model projected. Southpaw Steven Matz, meanwhile, lands a $5MM deal, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter). That’s $300K shy of his projected amount. Relievers Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo will earn $1.225MM and $2MM, respectively, per Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter links). Slugger Michael Conforto will earn $8.0MM, per SNY.tv’s Andy Martino (via Twitter), which is notably south of the $9.2MM that we projected. And fellow outfielder Jake Marisnick checks in a just over 10% north of his projection at $3,312,500, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets.
  • Star reliever Kirby Yates receiveds a $7,062,500 salary from the Padres, per Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He tops the $6.5MM that MLBTR projected by a solid margin, reflecting just how exceptional he was in 2019.
  • The Marlins will pay recently acquired infielder Jonathan Villar a $8.2MM salary, per MLB.com’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter). That’s a far sight shy of the $10.4MM that the MLBTR system projected, perhaps reflecting a more difficult path to the bigger number through recent comparables. The club also had some added leverage here since Villar would likely not fare terribly well on the open market if cut loose at this stage or later. (Unless this is a guaranteed deal, Villar could still be jettisoned, with the club paying just a fraction of the settled amount.) The Fish also have also agreed to terms with lefty Adam Conley (for $1.525MM, per MLB Network Radio’s Craig Mish, via Twitter) and righty Jose Urena (for $3.75MM, per MLB Network’s Jon Heyman, on Twitter).
  • Righty Vince Velasquez will pitch for $3.6MM this year with the Phillies, per Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philly (via Twitter). Fellow hurler Jose Alvarez will earn $2.95MM, per Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Twitter).
  • The Rockies have an agreement with lefty Kyle Freeland, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link). He’ll earn $2.875MM. Outfielder David Dahl takes home $2.475MM, Heyman adds on Twitter. The former had projected at $2.4MM and the latter at $3.0MM.
  • Pirates hurler Joe Musgrove will receive $2.8MM, per Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter links). Fellow righty Keone Kela will earn a reported $3.725MM. Both players had projected at $3.4MM, but land well to either side of that number. Infielder Adam Frazier also has a deal at $2.8MM, per Mackey (via Twitter).
  • Righty Anthony DeSclafani will earn $5.9MM from the Reds, according to Robert Murray (via Twitter). He had projected at $5.2MM. Backstop Curt Casali will earn $1.4625MM, per Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Twitter link). And reliever Matt Bowman takes down $865K, Murray adds on Twitter.
  • The Dodgers have worked out a non-typical deal with righty Ross Stripling, Heyman tweets. He’ll get an up-front signing bonus of $1.5MM, which he’ll receive in the next week, and then earn $600K for the campaign to come. Stripling had projected to earn $2.3MM on the year.
  • Cardinals righty John Gant will earn $1.3MM after settling with the club. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch first tweeted that a deal was in place, while Murray had the number on Twitter. That comes in just under his $1.4MM projection.

Earlier Settlements

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