When it was announced that 18-year-old Mexican phenom Julio Urias had been invited to the Dodgers big league spring training camp, Dodgers fans from around the globe were ecstatic. It gave them almost a giddy feeling that the Dodgers top pitching prospect might actually fulfill legendary scout Mike Brito’s prediction that Urias would be pitching in the big leagues as an 18-year-old – something that hasn’t happened since Tim Conroy debuted with the Oakland A’s on June 23, 1978 only 81 days after his 18th birthday.

But on Saturday morning, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly took the wind out of the sails of Urias fans when he said that he doubts that Urias will pitch at Dodger Stadium in 2015.

“Probably not. I don’t think that’s part of plan it doesn’t seem like,” Mattingly said. “I watch Andrew [Friedman] shake his head when we talk about Urias. I think with our guys you want to give them the best chance to develop so when they do come, it’s not a back-and-forth [to the minor leagues].

“I think he’s going to be the way he’s talked about,” added Mattingly. “We need to see the way he develops. I think everybody really has high hopes for him and nobody wants to see him rushed and then have him do the back-and-forth.”

While it is understandable that the Dodgers want to be careful with 18-year-old Julio Urias, a kid like this doesn’t come along but once in a generation. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Being cautious with young prospects is nothing new for Mattingly. Just two springs ago we witnessed highly touted Cuban prospect Yasiel Puig have one of the best spring trainings in MLB history, going 30 for 58 (.517) with three home runs and 11 RBIs. But even at that, Mattingly (and just about everybody else) called Puig “raw” and the popular Dodger outfielder began the season at Double-A Chattanooga until his June 3, 2013 call-up to the big leagues. That being said, there was no back-and-forth with Puig when he finally made it to The Show.

Mattingly was quick to point out that regardless of where Urias begins the 2015 season, just being in big league camp is a great learning experience for the 18-year-old lefty and the other young guns in camp.

“Being in camp is really important for the younger guys,” Mattingly said. “I’ve talked about it as an experience, just going to camp is a big step. You’re getting the chance to interact with, for him, with Kershaw and Greinke, to see him under the big league pitching coaches.

“It’s part of the development, like the Winter Development program, the more things you go through and kind of tick off your list, the less things you have up here,” Mattingly added. “For all the young guys that are in camp, Corey [Seager] is the same way, anything that we can do that kind of helps the development.”

In his two short years in professional baseball, Urias has been on a very strict innings limit and pitch count to protect his young arm. But according to Mattingly, all that’s about to change.

“I’ll categorize like this – they’re going to take the gloves off a little bit,” said Mattingly. “I didn’t really hear the exact number of innings, the exact number of pitches, but it sounds like he’s grown up. He’ll get more innings this year and it’s up to the development side to decide.”

Although Urias will undoubtedly receive a lot of attention from fans and the media this spring, he still has a job to do and he needs to stay focused on getting ready for the 2015 season – something that is not lost on Mattingly.

“He’ll have a schedule where he’s being built up,” said Mattingly. “Obviously he’s going to have to get ready for his season – the number of innings. There’s some other guys that are going to be higher priority. Obviously we’re going to get Kershaw and Greinke and Ryu and our guys ready for the season, but early on usually is when you have more innings for those guys until the starters are getting built up and taking more of the innings.

“There’s more places for the younger guys to be able to pitch, so you’ll probably see him a little more early but we’ll try to keep him so he’s ready for his season,” added Mattingly.

With spring training not even a week old, Urias fans need to keep in mind the words of Dodgers owner Mark Walter – “Pitchers break.” And Heaven forbid that this should happen to the Dodgers, but if it does, there is still a chance that Urias could still make his MLB debut at some point during the 2015 season.