Column: Julio UrÃas simply cannot be allowed to pitch again for the Dodgers
For Julio UrÃas, domestic violence accusations are no longer a blip, a stumble, a lapse.
For the Dodgers’ most popular player, domestic violence accusations are now a pattern.
Four years ago, he was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic battery in a parking lot near the Beverly Center.
Sunday night, he was arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence while leaving BMO Stadium.
Same player, same sordid issues. What on earth was UrÃas thinking?
He was given a second chance and he blew it. The Dodgers trusted him and he betrayed them. His enormous fan base continued to love him, yet he has once again embarrassed them.
Major League Baseball is aware Dodgers pitcher Julio UrÃas was arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence and plans to launch an investigation.
His employer has many options here, but really only one choice.
Julio UrÃas cannot throw another pitch as a Dodger.
Unless these latest accusations are rendered false, the Dodgers can’t keep giving the ball to a guy who could be the first player in baseball history to be suspended by MLB twice for domestic violence. The basic agreement between the owners and union might initially prevent the Dodgers from cutting him, but that doesn’t mean they have to play him, and they shouldn’t.
At the very least, if he somehow manages to lawyer his way back on the mound this fall, the team cannot bring him back next season after he becomes a free agent this winter.
Julio UrÃas has to be done as a Dodger.
While there are no sordid descriptions or photos in this latest UrÃas incident, the Dodgers should handle it the way they ultimately handled Trevor Bauer, who didn’t need to be arrested or charged to get dumped.
Bauer is gone because the city and its most beloved sports franchise cannot be represented by someone whose alleged violence toward women led MLB to suspend him for 324 games, a punishment that was later reduced to 194 games.
UrÃas should now be gone too, not only for an alleged criminal act, but a stunning lack of judgment.
In 2019, police said witnesses saw him push a woman to the ground in a parking lot near the Beverly Center. He was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic battery and baseball suspended him for 20 games.
Yet four years later he put himself and a woman in that same situation again? And this time the suspicion involves a felony? UrÃas was detained by Exposition Park police and landed in the Los Angeles County jail before he was released Monday morning on a $50,000 bond.
The Dodgers can clearly no longer trust him. So now they must bench him and wait for the day they can watch him walk into the free-agent sunset.
Make no mistake, this will hurt. This will hurt bad.
While UrÃas has been a disappointment this season with a 4.80 ERA, the Dodgers retained hope that he could anchor their postseason pitching rotation with his 3.68 career playoff ERA and late-inning heroics that clinched the 2020 World Series championship.
The steadiest three Dodgers starters in a very shaky autumn rotation were going to be UrÃas, Clayton Kershaw and Bobby Miller. Now that list has probably been whittled down to two, the aging Kershaw and the rookie Miller, and there are questions about how long the Dodgers can survive.
This will hurt the fans, too, as UrÃas has always been given Dodger Stadium’s loudest ovations, even after his 2019 suspension.
The story of the pitcher from Culiacan, Mexico, with the deformed left eye who was signed by the Dodgers at age 16 has long warmed local hearts. He reminded folks of Fernando Valenzuela. He was a Dodgers’ cultural touchstone.
The city had forgiven him. The Dodgers had forgiven him. Yet apparently, once again, he allegedly does the unforgivable.
Goodbye and good riddance.
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