Henry Urrutia - A Tale of Two Seasons

If you were to try to name the most-disappointing minor leaguer in the 2014 Orioles' organization, Henry Urrutia would almost certainly be a finalist. Signed at age 25 in 2012 out of Cuba, Urrutia made a spectacular United States debut in 2013, hitting .347/.406/.506 in 81 games between AA Bowie and AAA Norfolk. He was even called up to Baltimore in that first professional season, getting 58 plate appearances with a .276 batting average. Baseball America ranked Urrutia as the Orioles #7 prospect entering the 2014 season, saying that he should compete for the Orioles' left-field job in 2014. This was before the Orioles added Delmon Young and Nelson Cruz, so Urrutia was optioned to Norfolk. He had a disappointing year; hitting only .270/.284/.338 in 51 games and spending April 29 through July 27 on the disabled list with a sports hernia.

Henry Urrutia in 2014. Photo courtesy of Christopher McCain / Norfolk Tides

It's likely that Urrutia's disappointing 2014 was at least partially caused by his injury. Whether it was or not, however, we can look at Urrutia's performances in 2013 and 2014 and try to see how they differ. If we can identify real differences, we can see what Urrutia must do to regain his 2013 form and speculate on whether it was caused by his injury. I don't know enough physiology or medicine to engage in such speculation, but I can look at the games I worked in which he played to identify the differences. I saw 28 of Urrutia's 2013 plate appearances; 34 of his 2014 plate appearances before his disabled list stint; and 29 of his 2014 plate appearances after his disabled list stint. Urrutia hit .220 before and .303 after his disabled list stint.

2013

	BB	K	P	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	LF	CF	RF
Ground			4		4	2		2	2
Line Drive									2	2	2
Fly									2	1	1
Other	2	2

2014 Before Disabled List

	BB	K	P	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	LF	CF	RF
Ground			4		3	6		5	3
Line Drive									3
Fly									1
Other	1	8

2014 After Disabled List

	BB	K	P	C	1B	2B	3B	SS	LF	CF	RF
Ground					1	3		7	2	2	1
Line Drive								1	3
Fly						1			1	1
Other	0	6

We can see that Urrutia struck out substantially more frequently in 2014 than in 2013. It could be that the injury was affecting Urrutia's ability to make contact and that he was rusty after he came off the DL, or that pitchers were taking advantage of a discovered weakness, or that Urrutia was experimenting with his approach. Whatever the reason, when he increased his strikeouts his productivity decreased.

Next, it's clear that after his disabled list stint he hit the ball on the ground more frequently than otherwise. In 2013, 58% of the balls he put in play were ground balls. In 2014 after he returned from the disabled list, 70% of the balls he put in play were ground balls. In 2014 before he was placed on the disabled list, 84% of the ball he put in play were ground balls. And, before he hit the disabled list in 2014, he didn't hit a ball, either in the air or on the ground, to the right or center fielders.

Based on this, it seems clear that Urrutia's problems in early 2014 were at least partly caused by the sports hernia. He wasn't pulling the ball and he wasn't lofting the ball. Those actions seem likely to be hampered by a sports hernia. When he came back, he still wasn't able to pull fly balls or line drives although he was hitting more of them.

When he's at his best, Urrutia hits the ball all over the field although he doesn't seem to slap ground balls to third. This quick look does confirm that Urrutia wasn't at his best in 2014, especially before his sports hernia was diagnosed and he was put on the disabled list. Urrutia will likely start 2015 in Norfolk (unless he ends up in another organization.) If he returns to hitting fly balls and line drives, he still could prove to be a useful left-handed designated hitter-type.