Dodgers' Urias To Miss Rest Of Season Following Shoulder Surgery

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Left-hander Julio Urias, the Los Angeles Dodgers' top prospect, needs shoulder surgery and will miss the rest of the season.

The 20-year-old is scheduled to have his left anterior capsule repaired Tuesday by Dodgers head physician Dr. Neal ElAttrache. Los Angeles president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said Urias is expected to be sidelined for 12-to-14 months.

The injury is typically associated with wear and tear, and Friedman said the Dodgers could not find an example of another pitching sustaining that type of injury at such a young age.

"It's not as serious as I think it sounded to me on the front end," Friedman said Friday. "It was an acute injury, which means it happened on a pitch. So the fact that it's not wear and tear that happened over years makes the prognosis that much better. Dr. ElAttrache is really confident that we'll be able to take care of this and get him back to his accustomed level."

Urias signed with the Dodgers as a 16-year-old from Mexico, and Los Angeles limited his innings each season.

"I think that there's some solace in that," manager Dave Robert said. "It doesn't change the fact that we're disappointed for Julio. But I think as an organization I just don't see how we could have handled him with more care."

Urias made his major league debut on May 27 last year and went 5-2 with a 3.39 ERA in 15 starts and three relief appearances during his rookie season. Urias did not make his first appearance for the Dodgers this year until April 27 and went 0-2 with a 5.40 ERA in five starts for Los Angeles. He was sent to Oklahoma City to work on his mechanics, and Friedman said Urias injured the shoulder June 10 on a single pitch in his last outing with the Triple-A farm team.

"He still threw two more innings at 96-97 (mph)," Friedman said. "But the next day he woke up and said it was really stiff."

Friedman and Roberts said Urias took the news hard.

"For him it's frustration, anger, sadness," Roberts said. "This year, essentially, if you're talking about building a young pitcher up and getting him to a point where we can take off the training wheels, we're kind of back to that point next year, as next year's going to essentially be a recover year."

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