Ramón Urías wasn’t seen as a lock to make the Orioles out of spring training despite spending the previous four seasons with them.
Then, when Jackson Holliday was promoted in April for a brief time, Urías had no role on the Orioles. He sat for nine straight games — not common for most bench players, especially under manager Brandon Hyde — and only saw four plate appearances in pinch-hit opportunities. Urías played even less in May, including a seven-game stretch during which he received zero starts and one plate appearance.
“It was a situation I’ve never been in before,” Urías said. “It’s not easy. The only thing that I could do was, like, stay focused and keep working hard and practice. But, yeah, it was a difficult time.”
Leading up to the trade deadline, with the Orioles searching for right-handed bats and third base prospect Coby Mayo banging on the door with his powerful bat, it again appeared that Urías’ days in Baltimore could be numbered.
Three weeks later, Urías is an everyday player for a team fighting for the top spot in the American League. With Jordan Westburg injured and Mayo back in Triple-A, the Orioles are relying on Urías to provide value at third base and at the bottom of their lineup — and he’s stepped up thus far.
“Ramón’s the same guy every single day — whether he’s playing, whether he’s not playing, whether he hasn’t played in three or four days or whether he’s been in the lineup,” Hyde said. “Anything we can add to the bottom of the order … that’s huge. Ramón’s always been a super steady player for us.”
When Holliday was recalled on July 31, it appeared Urías would return to his full-time bench role. But Westburg, an All-Star this year, fractured his right hand that afternoon, leaving a hole in the Orioles’ lineup that no one in the organization can fully fill. The club hopes Westburg is back before the end of the regular season, but given the unpredictable nature of his injury, no timeline has been set.
“Westy is super important to this team,” Urías said. “He’s a key for us to be in first place when he was playing. … Hopefully he can be back soon. For myself, I’m just trying to help the team win.”
Over the past 10 days, Urías has put together his two best games of his season and some of the most impactful offensive performances by any Oriole this year.
Against the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 10, he went 2-for-5 with a go-ahead two-run homer to lead the Orioles to victory. The long ball was his first homer off a left-hander in two years, and at 418 feet, it was his farthest since September 2022. Against the Boston Red Sox on Friday, the 30-year-old Mexico native went 3-for-3 with a homer, walk, sacrifice fly and a career-high five RBIs.
Urías said his sparse playing time “wasn’t something I was used to” after starting a combined 205 games the previous two seasons. He’s started only 56 of Baltimore’s 125 games this year.
“There’s been ups and downs throughout the season,” Urías said. “The main thing is just being positive through those bad times. But, yeah, I’m seeing the ball well right now.”
Urías has been almost exactly a league-average hitter this season — a .243 average and .699 OPS — and throughout his career. By OPS+, which normalizes a player’s OPS where 100 is average, Urías has been 2% above average this year and 5% in his career.
The expectation for Urías is not for him to be a standout hitter, but instead to be a reliable, above-replacement-level player who can come off the bench or be trusted to start if needed. After a slow start in April, he’s been just that this year.
“Ramón has always stayed ready,” Hyde said. “He wasn’t getting regular playing time early, knowing that anything can happen, and unfortunately there are injuries and we’ve had our share. He’s ready to go when the time was to give him more playing time.”
Urías’ lack of playing time early in the season wasn’t just because of the circumstances. He hit .174 with a paltry .452 OPS in March/April for the worst month of his big league career. But in his 186 plate appearances since, Urías has slashed .262/.344/.421 — good for a .765 OPS that ranks ahead of Adley Rutschman, Colton Cowser and Ryan Mountcastle over that span.
Urías has hit seven homers in 230 plate appearances (a near-league-average rate of 3%) this season — closer to the 3.6% he posted when he smacked 16 homers in 2022 than to the anemic 1% clip from 2023 when he went deep just four times. He intentionally lost a few pounds earlier in the summer to be more explosive at the plate, and he believes that’s why he’s started to flash more power recently.
One area Urías hasn’t performed well this season is on defense. After winning a Gold Glove at third base in 2022, he’s been rated as a below-average defender each of the past two seasons. His minus-9 outs above average, according to Statcast, ranks as the second-worst among third basemen and seventh-worst among all MLB players.
Urías and Hyde both believe the decline defensively can be attributed to his lack of consistent playing time.
“I know the metrics ding him a little bit,” Hyde said, “but it’s still really solid defensively and makes a lot of tough plays look easy because his hands and his feet are so good. He understands angles. But I just think it’s because he’s not out there every day.”
“I’m not very proud of the way I’ve been playing defense the last couple years,” Urías said. “People forget that it’s not my main position. I’ve always been a second baseman or middle infielder. 2022 was the first time that I played third. I think it’s just the playing time. I still feel comfortable at third, but I’m learning a lot of things over there, too.”
Throughout the season, Urías said he tried to block out thoughts about his role with the team and his future in an organization stacked with current and former top prospects. But at times, as he sat on the bench night after night, it was difficult to ignore them. He’s glad now he didn’t allow them to overtake him.
“There’s always those thoughts in the back of your head,” he said. “You just have to be smart and believe in yourself that you still can be a big league player.”
What’s to come?
The Orioles will face as many left-handed starting pitchers (five) in seven games this week as they did in their first 29 games of the second half.
All three starters from the Mets (64-60), whom the Orioles begin a three-game series against Monday in New York, are southpaws: David Peterson, Jose Quintana and Sean Manaea. Then, likely Friday and Saturday, the Orioles will face lefties Framber Valdez and Yusei Kikuchi of the AL West-leading Houston Astros (67-56).
Baltimore is hitting about 8% worse against left-handed starters this season than against righties. After opening the year 14-5 in games started by southpaws, the Orioles are 4-10 versus them since. That means fans will get an extra dose of platoon players Austin Slater and Eloy Jiménez as well as perhaps catcher James McCann.
What was good?
The only “Sweep Escape” needed at Camden Yards this week was for pitchers who had to face Gunnar Henderson.
It felt as if Henderson was slumping since the All-Star break because of his power outage. That wasn’t the case, as the 23-year-old was hitting .307 with an .811 OPS in the second half before last week’s homestand.
But Henderson has fully regained his power stroke over the past five games, hitting homers in four of them to raise his season total to 33. He’s on pace for 42 long balls.
What wasn’t?
The bullpen.
Surrounding standout performances from the Orioles’ relief corps in wins Wednesday and Thursday were poor ones the other four games in which the group allowed a total of 13 runs. Overall, the bullpen posted a 5.66 ERA across 20 2/3 innings. Every reliever except Gregory Soto, who struggled in the two previous weeks, allowed at least one run.
Craig Kimbrel surrendered two homers in his lone inning as the Orioles attempt to get him back on track. In the meantime, Seranthony Domínguez has been receiving save opportunities, converting both last week.
On the farm
One of the best home run hitters in Baltimore’s farm system is now one call away from the show.
The Orioles are promoting outfielder Jud Fabian to Triple-A Norfolk, a source confirmed to The Baltimore Sun. Fabian, who Baseball America ranks as the organization’s No. 11 prospect, was hitting .233 with a .758 OPS in Double-A Bowie. The 2022 Competitive Balance Round B pick sports a concerning 29.9% strikeout rate this year, but his 18 homers are tied for second in the system behind only Mayo, while he also has solid speed with 44 stolen bases the past two seasons.
MASNSports.com was first to report Fabian’s promotion.