Orioles Place Ramón Urías on 10-Day IL to end his season

The Orioles put infielder Ramón Urías on the IL on Wednesday, ending his 3rd big league season.

As the playoff hopes for the Baltimore Orioles get dimmer by the day, the club received an insult to injury quite literally. Prior to Wednesday’s game against the Boston Red Sox, infielder Ramón Urías was placed on the 10-Day IL with a right knee sprain as part of a series of roster moves.

To take Urías’s spot on the active roster, Tyler Nevin was called up from Triple-A Norfolk. The Orioles also brought up Beau Sulser and Keegan Akin from the Tides, with Joey Krehbiel and Jake Reed being sent down. The IL placement ends the season for Urías, who was in the midst of a strong third season of big league action.

Urías had missed time over the previous week due to back spasms but was able to return to the lineup in Tuesday’s loss to the Red Sox. Unfortunately, sliding into 3rd base in the 5th inning is the last we’ll see of Urías on the field this season, as he sustained the knee sprain on that play, having to be helped off the field. Brandon Hyde commented on the injury:

"“You saw last night when he came off the off the field, obviously it looked pretty serious and he couldn’t put a whole lot of weight on it. Unfortunate accident. He’s going to be fine. But unfortunately we only have so much time left here in the season, but big blow for us last night.”"

The IL placement comes at an equally inopportune time for Urías as well. In his last seven games prior to leaving injured, he was enjoying a hot streak, hitting for a .316 average with a .435 on base percentage, adding one home run in that time.

Urías ends his 3rd season with a much-improved statline, seemingly turning that corner as it looked like back in May. His season ends with a .248 batting average, .414 slugging percentage, and .720 OPS, setting career bests with 16 home runs and 51 RBI’s in a career high 118 games for the Birds.

He also ends the season with much improved statcast metrics. His hard-hit percentage ends in the 83rd percentile, with his average exit velocity in the 59th percentile, and his barrel percentage in the 64th percentile. He made big strides defensively too, accounting for 6 outs above average across third base, second base, and shortstop, ranking in the 92nd percentile in that category.

By no means did Urías morph into some superstar caliber player this season. But, like most of the team, he made important strides, and is looking more and more like an everyday player as the Orioles end their rebuild and start their push to serious division and playoff competition.