Several times during Thursday afternoon’s press conference in which Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi repeatedly tried to convince the media that Don Mattingly wasn’t fired and had left on his own accord, they yet again made reference that it is their ultimate long-term goal to “get younger” as opposed to spending even more money on aging veterans. And while no one will argue that it is essential to have several such veterans in every clubhouse, teams like the Mets, Cubs, Astros, Royals and even the hated Giants have proven that it is possible – even probable – to be successful with homegrown talent.

Now granted, these teams are where they are today because of many years of being… well… awful, thereby getting very early draft picks year after year. But unlike the Dodgers – who, incidentally, have never had a number one overall draft pick in the 50-year history of the MLB draft – these teams didn’t trade them away to land experienced free agents and instead cultivated and developed then within their respective minor league systems – kind of like what Branch Rickey did with the Dodgers back in the ’40s and ’50s. The result are teams that are now extremely successful with most of their young players still under team control for several years to come.

You don’t have to look much past the New York Mets to see what can happen when you keep top prospects instead of trading them. The Mets drafted Jacob deGrom in the ninth round of the 2010 MLB Draft and look where they are today by keeping him. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Although there are many Dodger fans who believe that Friedman and Zaidi should have traded away Corey Seager and Julio Urias to land Cole Hamels or David Price or Johnny Cueto at the July 31 trade deadline, hanging on to them certainly bodes well for the Dodgers future and stays within Friedman and Zaidi’s plans of getting younger. And while we will never know for sure, it is quite possible that former Dodgers GM Ned Colletti – who had a propensity for trading away top prospects for aging veterans – might have let Seager and Urias go – especially when the team lost Hyun-jin Ryu and Brandon McCarthy for the season.

Over the past several weeks there has been quite a bit of chatter on social media and in the local press that Dodgers top pitching prospect Julio Urias will most likely not be in the Dodgers starting rotation on Opening Day 2016 – and justifiably so. The kid is still only 19 years old. But the truth of the matter is that if he is MLB-ready – regardless of his tender age – why wouldn’t Friedman and Zaidi (and whoever replaces Mattingly) include Urias in the 2016 starting rotation? Doing so most certainly accomplishes Friedman and Zaidi’s desire to get younger.

But hidden in the shadow of the 19-year-old hard-throwing young phenom from Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico is a guy who absolutely is ready for prime time – 23-year-old right-hander Jose De Leon – who is exactly four years and five days older than Julio Urias.

The fact that the Dodgers did not give De Leon permission to play winter ball this off-season is a pretty good sign that they intend to invite him to big league camp this spring. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Although Urias began the 2015 season at Double-A Tulsa and De Leon at Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga, the pair – who are very close friends – became teammates when De Leon was promoted to the Drillers on May 22, 2015. At Tulsa the two combined for a 5-10 record and 3.23 ERA with (brace yourself) 203 strikeouts and 88 walks in 145 combined innings pitched – 68.1 by Urias and 76.2 by De Leon. And even though Urias finished up at Tulsa with a better record, lower ERA, more strikeouts and fewer walks than De Leon, the Isabela, Puerto Rico native struck out 10 or more batters in a game six different times during 2015 compared to Urias’ two times. Of course it wouldn’t be fair not to mention that Urias has been on a very strict innings / pitch-count limit throughout his brief three-year minor league career, whereas De Leon has gone more than five innings numerous times during his three years of professional ball, so there’s that to consider.

All of this being said, Urias received a late-season (August 31) promotion to Triple-A Oklahoma City. And although this promotion was probably made to shore up the OKC Dodgers’ postseason roster more than anything else, the young left-hander struggled in his two starts at the Triple-A level, allowing nine runs on 11 hits with five strikeouts and six walks in only 4.1 innings of work. This is undoubtedly the reason for all of the negative social media chatter and local press arguing that the 19-year-old in not MLB-ready – quite an unfair assessment based on 4.1 innings of work, wouldn’t you say?

But putting all of the numbers aside, it goes beyond all reason and common sense not to invite both Urias and De Leon to big league camp when pitchers and catchers report on (or around) February 17, 2016. Once there, and depending on who the Dodgers new pitching coach is (yes, I anticipate that Rick Honeycutt will soon follow Mattingly out the door), there is a legitimate chance that De Leon might indeed make the Dodgers Opening Day rotation – especially if he dials in his control a bit (i.e. – fewer walks) and continues to improve on his absolutely filthy off-speed stuff.

Even though it is still extremely likely that Friedman and Zaidi will be in the market for a top-tier starter this off-season – especially if they do not re-sign right-hander Zack Greinke – they would be foolish, absolutely foolish to trade Julio Urias and/or Jose De Leon to accomplish that goal.