The Colorado Rockies are faced with a pitching staff that has more questions than solutions this winter. Along with that, the money to be spent on solutions is thin at most. So re-stocking a troubled bullpen will take some resourcefulness, creativity, and some risk-taking. The latter of those evidenced by the acquisition of classic hot and cold right-hander Robert Stephenson from the Reds. Another such risk-riddled candidate for the Rockies bullpen may very well be Jose Urena.
The Breakdown
The 29-year old right-hander was recently designated for assignment by the Miami Marlins after their acquisition of reliever Adam Cimber. Urena was the odd-man-out in the surge of young pitchers ascending to the big club in Miami. As a starter, the Dominican Republic native tallied a 32-46 record with mostly forgettable Marlins teams over six seasons.
Urena possesses a four-seamer and sinker that both average solidly in the mid-’90s. The problem has been his inability to develop a reliable third pitch. The Marlins experiments with him included two stints with a curveball (2015 & 2018), a slider, and a career-long effort with a changeup. Those pitches consistently failed to yield much vertical movement. And flat breaking balls get barreled-up and hit hard in the big leagues.
The Adjustment
The bottom line with Jose Urena is that most of his pitches come in looking the same and at similar velocities. Once through a batting order like that is feasible, but a second and third turns through have proven highly problematic. A move to full-time relief work is the first adjustment needed for Urena. It’s a role not totally alien to him as he’s made 42 relief appearances in his career. He was even tried briefly as a closer and earned four saves. His background as a starter would positively translate to multiple inning work potentially saving wear and tear on the rest of a bullpen.
However, the big obstacle is still Urena’s pitch arsenal. A hard four-seam fastball is a requirement for pretty much any reliever these days. His similarly hard sinker that changes the vertical plane 40-60% on average is a good second pitch and has served Urena well. It’s changing the horizontal plane that his repertoire has never been able to accomplish. Here’s where the real risky part comes in.
Cutting To the Chase
Having been unsuccessful in implementing pitches that looked different from his fastball and sinker, why not a cutter? The cutter is a pitch that has the same arm action as the fastball and sinker but moves differently. The cutter comes out of the hand like a fastball, then grinds across the horizontal plane into the thin bat/knuckles region of a lefty hitter’s swing arc. It’s a pitch most devastatingly deployed by uber-closer Mariano Rivera all the way to the Hall of Fame.
Creatively Acquiring Urena
Urena has struggled as a starter over the past two seasons. In 2019 he was 4-10 with a 5.21 ERA. In 2020, 0-3, 5.40 ERA in five starts. That will make it very difficult for him to find a rotation job anywhere. The major obstacle in signing him will be that he is in his last year of arbitration eligibility. Even struggling players get multi-millions in arbitration hearings. Getting around that will take some creative thinking.
Rockies Senior Vice President and General Manager Jeff Bridich have taken a lot of heat for the team’s faltering the past two seasons and for good reasons. But creative contracts have not been out of the realm for him. He got Charlie Blackmon to heavily incentivize the player option on the last year of his contract extension. He convinced Trevor Story to forego the last two years of arbitration eligibility by signing a two-year deal. Bridich also got German Marquez to similarly bypass arbitration years and lock him up potentially through the 2024 season.
The Pitch
Make the case that no one wants Urena as a starter, but the Rockies see real value in him as a reliever. Provided, of course, that he proves himself by earning his way back to regular duty. A low-base, high incentive contract that can equal what Urena could have once earned in arbitration could do the trick. One of those incentives should be the number of appearances Urena makes in the eighth or ninth innings. This way Jose Urena gets a big-league job instead of the inevitable minor league deal other teams would offer.
When things are tight, all anyone can do is roll up their sleeves and get to work. In this case, that mindset applies to both the player and the team. It might even work out that the Rockies find themselves a solid bullpen piece in the process.
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