Ureña’s adjustments are paying off
Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly’s final words when the coronavirus pandemic put spring training to a halt on March 12 weren’t about the virus, what the team’s plans were moving forward, or pondering about the uncertainty that would ultimately envelop the team and Major League Baseball for more than three months.
Instead, after answering a handful of questions from three reporters around those topics with what limited information he had at the time, he provided an unprompted observation from the game that had just concluded — one that became an afterthought as news of Opening Day’s postponement at the hands of a global pandemic became official.
“José looked good out there,” Mattingly quipped as he walked out of the media workroom.
Four months later, Mattingly is still high on José Ureña as he continues to solidify a spot back in the Marlins’ starting rotation.
The Marlins have seen plenty from Ureña over the past few years.
He was a workhorse for them since moving to the starting rotation midway through the 2016 season and was the Opening Day starter in both 2018 and 2019. He started 28 games in 2017, 31 in 2018 and made his first 13 scheduled trips to the mound in 2019 before a herniated disc in his lower back sent him to the injured list on June 12. He stayed on the IL for more than two months and finished the season as a reliever.
Ureña had to showcase not only that he was healthy, but that he was also worthy of regaining a spot in the five-person starting rotation as a slew of top pitching prospects started to creep up from the minor leagues.
He looked the part before the shutdown.
Ureña’s line in that final spring training game against the St. Louis Cardinals: 5 innings pitched, one hit allowed, three strikeouts and one walk.
Ureña’s combined line in four spring training starts: 14 innings pitched, two earned runs allowed on 13 hits, eight strikeouts and one walk.
“I was trying to expand the zone a little more,” Ureña said. “Trying to use both sides. That made a big difference for me right now.”
He was complementing his sinker with a four-seam fastball that was effective on both sides of the plate and was trying focusing on command of his breaking balls — he has both a slider and a curveball in his arsenal.
“I think what we saw in spring was a guy who was more more willing to make some adjustments,” Mattingly said Saturday.
And he had some new mechanics in place.
Urena pitched almost exclusively out of the stretch during spring training, which he did during that final month of the 2019 season when he was used out of the bullpen after his return from the injured list following the back injury.
It hasn’t impacted his velocity either, with his sinker still steadily hitting the upper 90s.
His steadiness and uptick in production has helped him all but lock down one of the Marlins’ rotation spots. Sandy Alcantara, Caleb Smith and Pablo Lopez also seem set to be part of the rotation, with one of Jordan Yamamoto, Elieser Hernandez, Nick Neidert and Robert Dugger rounding out the group.
Rising prospects Sixto Sanchez, Edward Cabrera and Jorge Guzman headline a group of pitchers in Jupiter who, like Ureña, are able to throw in the triple digits.
“We keep working,” Ureña said. “It’s pretty good. You’ve got more support. It’s tough when they see a lot of guys coming spicy. It’s pretty good.”
CHISHOLM PRACTICING
Shortstop Jazz Chisholm, the Marlins’ No. 3 overall prospect according to MLBPipeline, has reported to practice and is working out at the team’s Jupiter complex.
“It’s good to have Jazz back,” Mattingly said. “He’ll be in Jupiter. The good thing about Jupiter is there’s lots of reps, lots of at-bats down there.”
The team did not disclose why Chisholm missed the first eight days of practice. Heading into Saturday, he was one of three players scheduled to report to Marlins Park who was not seen at any of the practice sessions open to the media. Outfielders Lewis Brinson and Matt Joyce are the others.
Mattingly also said that a group of prospects who had been in Jupiter — namely outfielders JJ Bleday and Jerar Encarnacion as well as infielder José Devers — worked out at Marlins Park on Saturday.
That session was closed to the media.
SUNDAY PRACTICE OBSERVATIONS
Hernandez and Yamamoto faced off in Sunday’s team scrimmage at Marlins Park, yielding pretty solid results early before giving way to hitters late in their outings.
Hernandez struck out five batters in his first three innings of work before getting into trouble in his final two. The 25-year-old righty fought with traffic on the base paths in the fourth inning, ultimately giving up arunona Jonathan Villar sacrifice bunt that scored
Jon Berti from third base. He gave up a towering home run to Villar in the fifth.
Yamamoto threw four innings, striking out two in the first two innings and showing some solid glove work defensively.
In the second inning, with
Harold Ramirez on third base, Yamamoto fielded a weakly hit groundball from
Corey Dickerson just in front of home plate and flipped it to Chad Wallach to tag Ramirez out at home. Yamamoto struck out Garrett Cooper in the next at-bat to end the inning.
But Yamamoto’s third inning was rough. After two quick groundouts (including some nice glove work on a comebacker from Berti), he gave up three consecutive hits — a Villar single to right, a Jesus Aguilar RBI double off the wall in leftcenter field, and an Eddy Alvarez RBI double.
Hernandez and Yamamoto will get at least one more simulated game/live scrimmage before the team’s exhibition games against the Atlanta Braves on July 21 and 22 that will wrap up summer camp.
Miami didn’t field a full defense at any point during the scrimmage, as has been the case with all the other scrimmages to this point, so hits were subjective at points.