Catching up on José Ureña's post-Marlins journey

[Ely Sussman]

Ureña spent parts of six MLB seasons on the Marlins pitching staff. This weekend, he's back in Miami for the first time as an opposing player.

Many Miami Marlins fans may have assumed that José Ureña was out of Major League Baseball by now, and understandably so. Instead, he's poised to take the mound at loanDepot park on Friday night, pitching against the Fish as a member of the defending World Series champion's starting rotation.

Wait, what?!

To jog your memory, Ureña was a homegrown Marlin, signed out of the Dominican Republic a few weeks shy of his 17th birthday. The right-hander gradually ascended the minor league ladder, debuting early in the 2015 season and sticking permanently on the active roster from late 2016 onward. Ureña was a pleasant surprise in 2017, logging 169 ⅔ innings in the Marlins rotation with a 104 ERA+. He essentially replicated those results in 2018 while posting improved peripherals. There were lowlights along the way—particularly the first-pitch, Opening Day home run he allowed to Ian Happ and his seemingly intentional plunking of Atlanta Braves rookie Ronald Acuña Jr.—but he still provided some value as the defacto ace of a rebuilding team.

Ureña's career stagnated from there. Despite wielding a mid-90s fastball with nasty movement, he couldn't figure out how to consistently generate swinging strikes. His 18.3% strikeout rate from 2018 remains his single-season high and even that was significantly below the National League average. Lacking control and a reliable out-pitch against left-handed batters, his effectiveness waned.

Ureña posted a 5.25 ERA (83 ERA+) from 2019-2020, with 11 of those 29 appearances coming as a reliever. He was limited to 108 innings pitched during those two seasons, suffering a lower back strain and testing positive for COVID when the Marlins had their notorious outbreak. His Marlins tenure ended on a painful note in the club's 2020 regular season finale when a comebacker broke his right arm, preventing him from being available to pitch in the postseason. He was non-tendered during that ensuing offseason.

After having spent 12 years with the same organization, Ureña has undergone a drastic lifestyle change. The Texas Rangers are the sixth different team to give him a shot over the last 3.5 years.

Overall, Ureña's journeyman-phase results have been eerily similar to his final Marlins chapter: 5.29 ERA (83 ERA+) without much separation between his walk and strikeout rates. His fastball velocity remains impressive, averaging 95.6 mph with his sinker as a 32-year-old, but he has yet to prove himself as anything more than a replacement-level guy.

Ureña made the 2024 Rangers roster as a low-leverage reliever. Rotation injuries have led to a temporarily expanded role.

To Ureña's credit, he has made intriguing adjustments with Texas. For the first time ever, he's throwing his secondary pitches more often than his fastball. He enters Friday with a career-high 37.2% slider usage. That pitch is leading to plenty of soft contact and accumulating 60% of his strikeouts. It's only been 43 ⅓ innings, but he is on pace for a personal-best 3.53 ERA/111 ERA+ with a 4.27 FIP that would be his lowest mark since 2018.

Ureña ranks third all-time with 52 career starts at loanDepot park, trailing only Sandy Alcantara (66) and Tom Koehler (60). His 53rd will be his first as a visitor.

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