Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — There’s an old country song made famous by Willie Nelson called “The Last Thing I Needed the First Thing this Morning.” It’s about a guy who’s having a bummer of a day and then gets smacked in the face one morning with the news that his sweetheart is walking out on him. That’s kind of how I felt on Monday morning when I woke up to the news of Julio Urías being arrested and charged with felony domestic violence from an incident that occurred either at or after the LAFC game on Sunday night. Smacked in the face. But for me, it was only a figurative slap. What the Dodgers’ star is accused of is very much literal.
Whatever Urías did or didn’t do will be sorted out in a court of law. It’s not my place to judge what happened, much less judge where his heart is. However, this much I do know. Julio Urías was probably among the most popular Dodgers of this entire lengthy run of excellence, and in one fell swoop, he burned down every last bit of good will he had with this loyal fan base.
After the 2019 incident in the parking lot, I was willing to give Julio the benefit of the doubt. Young man gets in an argument with his girlfriend, things get heated, he maybe pushes her a little too hard. Regrettable, but it happens. Okay, so live and learn and don’t let it happen again. The 20-game suspension that year seemed about right. He came back and had a decent September and though he got shelled in a relief appearance against the Nationals that year, you couldn’t put too much blame on him for the Dodgers not advancing to the NLCS. So, I was willing to put the whole thing behind me and let Urías win his way back into my good graces.
And he had pretty much done so. During his epic run in the 2020 postseason, Julio had essentially erased any memory of the incident from the previous year from the minds of Dodger fans. Indeed, when the Trevor Bauer soap opera filled the Sports pages last year and the year before, what Urías was accused of seemed pretty small potatoes compared to the truly depraved behavior of Bauer. So in 2022, when Urías flirted with greatness, Dodger fans truly embraced their unlikely champion, the kid from Culiacan who persevered through the health challenges of his youth to will himself to be one of the game’s elite pitchers. How could you not love that story?
The fact that Urías is the highest profile Mexican player on the team since Fernando Valenzuela is no small thing in this marketplace. And, if Urías had kept out of trouble and stayed with the Dodgers, I have no doubt that these two pitchers would have one day been mentioned in the same breath as “Hispanic Heroes.” The sheer number of Urías jerseys that you see around the stadium is a testament to the chord that he has struck within the Latino community.
And all that is gone. It’s over. There are sure to be some bitter-enders who will support Julio no matter what, but the fact of the matter is there is no way Urías sets foot on a mound in a Dodger uniform ever again. With the investigation ongoing, he’s going to be at the very least put on the restricted list until this legal matter gets sorted out. But any punishment that the league metes out is sure to eliminate any possibility of Urías pitching in the postseason as well.
And, as a free agent, do you really think Urías will get an offer from the Dodgers after being so careless with the team’s brand? Julio never learned English well enough to conduct interviews in that language, but I suggest he get out his Pocket Guide to Japanese because he’s very likely to find the only offers he gets at the end of this year to be coming from the Nippon Ham Fighters or Chunichi Dragons.
Such a shame. We loved Julio’s passion on the mound. But it’s very likely that his MLB career is over because he could not control those same passions off the field.
