It was bound to happen this spring – everybody knew it. It was only a matter of when.

That ‘when’ came on Saturday afternoon, March 15, 2014 at Camelback Ranch when 17-year-old left-handed Mexican pitching sensation Julio Urias made his MLB spring training debut against the San Diego Padres in the first game of a split squad doubleheader.

How did the kid do, you ask?

In his one inning of work to start the game, Urias made 14 pitches (nine for strikes), struck out Padres center fielder Will Venable (after falling behind 3-0), induced a harmless 5-3 ground out to right fielder Chris Denorfia and struck out first baseman Yonder Alonso on four pitches. Here is a video of the inning courtesy of Dustin Nosler of the popular Feelin’ Kind of Blue and Dodgers Digest blog sites:

For those who have been following Urias in the minor leagues, today’s performance comes as no surprise – the kid was absolutely phenomenal last season in, of all places, Low Single-A Great Lakes. The Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico native was signed by the Dodgers on August 23, 2012 shortly after his 16th birthday. The initial plan for the youngster was for him to start his pro career with the short season Rookie League Ogden Raptors but Dodger management didn’t want him to wait around until after the MLB Amateur Draft in June to begin play, so they assigned him to the Loons with every intention of reassigning him to the Raptors once their season began; however, in his debut with the Loons, the 16-year-old struck out six batters over three shutout innings and the thought of sending him back down to the Rookie League vanished forever.

Just like another hard-throwing lefty out of Mexico named Fernando Valenzuela, Urias was discovered by legendary baseball scout Mike Brito, as was Yasiel Puig and 30 other players who made it to the major leagues. As you might expect, Brito was on hand for Urias’s MLB spring training debut today and was extremely impressed with his one inning of work.

“I am very happy because he showed greater stuff than what I expected,” Brito told Nosler after his outing.

During an interview with Brito last season, he said that he believes that Urias will be “…pitching in the major leagues as an 18-year-old.” When this was mentioned to Ned Colletti last September, the Dodger GM was a bit less confident.

“We’ll have to wait and see. Right now he’s pitching in Midland, Michigan and Lansing, Michigan. The hitters there are a little different.”

In his 54.1 innings of work with the Loons, Urias posted a 2-0 record with a 2.48 ERA in 18 starts. His win-loss record would have easily been much greater but the (then) 16-year-old was on a very strict innings limit and rarely went the requisite five innings to qualify for a win. He finished the season with 67 strikeouts and only 16 walks before being shut down in late August. According to Colletti, Urias will again be on an innings limit in 2014 but it will be increased over his 2013 limit.

“We usually do with most guys, we increase them a little here and there, probably 30 or 40 innings more,” Colletti said during that September 2013 interview. “It’s not necessarily the number, it’s what they go through. You can have a pitcher tonight throw a hundred pitches at six or seven times 15 or 105 pitches… throw 15 an inning, that’s pretty easy. You can have somebody else throw 105 pitches in seven innings and the last inning is 40 pitches and that’s where a lot of the wear and tear and the potential where something that gets banged up. In general we’ll move it up 35 or 40 innings providing that we don’t see a lot of stress and strain,” added the Dodgers GM.

Although Colletti has yet to weigh-in on Urias’s performance on Saturday afternoon against three relatively good-hitting major leaguers, he has probably changed his tune a little – although he most likely would never admit to that out loud.

Fellow Dodgers pitching prospect Lindsey Caughel, who is six years senior to Urias, also had nothing but praise for the young left-hander.

“He’s the real deal,” said Caughel during a recent interview. “His stuff is electric, his fastball and slider are alive with great movement. [Dodger fans] really need to keep an eye on this kid.”

After his outing on Saturday, Urias told reporters (through an interpreter) that his goal is to finish this year (2014) in the major leagues. When ESPNLA’s Mark Saxon asked if his father had told him about Fernando Valenzuela, Urias innocently said “My grandfather.” (Ouch! – Sorry Fernando).

Although it may seem unlikely that Julio Urias will pitch in the major leagues as an 18-year-old, I wouldn’t bet against it. (Video capture courtesy of Dustin Nosler)

While some believe that Urias may start the 2014 season at Double-A Chattanooga, most think that he will start at Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga but will end up at Chattanooga before long – perhaps even before the All-Star break. Starting at Rancho would definitely be a good thing for Urias because he would be under the watchful eye of Quakes pitching coach (and former major leaguer) Matt Herges, who has proven himself to not only be a great pitching coach but who is extremely well-liked by his players and fellow coaches.

Although Urias’s 2014 starting destination has yet to be determined there is one thing that is absolutely certain – Julio-mania has officially begun.

Bienvenido Julio!