Richard Ureña

Richard Ureña Castillo (born February 26, 1996) is a Dominican professional baseball shortstop for the Toronto Blue Jays organization. He has played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Blue Jays.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Ureña and the second or maternal family name is Castillo.
Richard Ureña
Ureña in 2017
Toronto Blue Jays
Shortstop
Born: (1996-02-26) February 26, 1996
San Francisco de Macorís, Duarte, Dominican Republic
Bats: Switch Throws: Right
MLB debut
September 1, 2017, for the Toronto Blue Jays
MLB statistics
(through 2019 season)
Batting average.253
Home runs2
Runs batted in14
Teams

Professional career

Toronto Blue Jays

Ureña was signed as an international free agent by the Blue Jays for $725,000 in 2012,[1] and played his first professional season split between the Dominican Summer League Blue Jays and Gulf Coast League Blue Jays. In 64 games with the DSL Blue Jays, he batted .296 with one home run and 35 runs batted in (RBI). He then played seven games in the Gulf Coast League, batting .333 with three RBI.[2] Ureña was promoted to the Rookie Advanced Bluefield Blue Jays of the Appalachian League for the start of the 2014 season, and recorded a 28-game streak of reaching base safely.[3] In 53 games, he hit .318 with two home runs and 20 RBI before he was promoted to the Short Season-A Vancouver Canadians on August 21.[4][2] Ureña appeared in nine games for Vancouver, batting .242 with five RBI.[2] On September 24, Ureña was named the Most Valuable Player for Bluefield in 2014.[5] He began the 2015 season with the Class-A Lansing Lugnuts. On June 5, Ureña was named a Midwest League midseason All-Star. At that time, he led the Lugnuts with seven home runs, and had 35 RBI.[6] Ureña was called up to the Advanced-A Dunedin Blue Jays in early July, and played 30 games there before returning to Lansing. In 121 games played, he batted .262 with 16 home runs and 66 RBI.[2] In the offseason, he appeared in 33 games with the Gigantes del Cibao of the Dominican Winter League. Batting against pitchers that were over seven years of age older than him on average, Ureña hit .258 with five RBI.[2]

Ureña was invited to Major League spring training on January 12, 2016,[7] and reassigned to minor league camp on March 12.[8] He was assigned to the Dunedin Blue Jays to open the 2016 minor league season.[9] Ureña recorded his first career five-hit game on July 9 which gave him 91 hits on the season, raising his batting average to .292 and tying him with Scott Kingery for first place in the Florida State League.[10] On July 27, Ureña was ranked 91st on MLB's Top 100 Prospects list, and was named the Blue Jays top prospect.[11] He was promoted to the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats on August 3, and had three hits in his debut that day.[12] On August 10, Ureña hit three triples against the Bowie Baysox, which set a Fisher Cats single-game record.[13] In 127 games in 2016, he hit .295 with eight home runs and 59 RBI.[2] The Blue Jays added him to their 40-man roster after the season.[14] Ureña spent the entire 2017 minor league season with Double-A New Hampshire, and hit .247 with five home runs and 60 RBI in a career-high 129 games played.[2]

Following his September callup to the Blue Jays in the previous season, Ureña was assigned to the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons to start the 2018 season.[15] However, due to an intercostal strain which included a rehab assignment with the Dunedin Blue Jays, he did not join the Bisons until May 2.[16]

Major Leagues

On August 31, 2017, Blue Jays' manager John Gibbons announced that Ureña would be called up on September 1.[17] Ureña hit his first MLB home run on September 8, in Toronto's 5–4 loss to the Detroit Tigers.[18] On September 12 he walked off the Baltimore Orioles, hitting an RBI single off closer Zach Britton to give the Blue Jays a 3–2 victory.[19] On December 30, 2019, Ureña was designated for assignment.[20]

Baltimore Orioles

On January 10, 2020, Ureña was claimed off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles.[21] Ureña was designated for assignment on February 19, 2020.[22] He became a free agent on November 2, 2020.

Toronto Blue Jays (Second Stint)

On December 18, 2020, Ureña signed a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays organization.[23]

References
  1. Caskey, Charlie. "2014 Toronto Blue Jays Top Prospects: #28 Richard Urena". jaysjournal.com. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
  2. "Richard Urena Minor League Statistics & History". Baseball-Reference. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
  3. "Twitter / BluefieldJays". Twitter. August 6, 2014. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
  4. "Bluefield Blue Jays on Twitter". Twitter. August 21, 2014. Retrieved August 25, 2014.
  5. Chisholm, Gregor (September 24, 2014). "Blue Jays name MVPs in Minor League system". MLB.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2014. Retrieved September 24, 2014.
  6. Fine, David (June 5, 2015). "Urena added to All-Star Roster". milb.com. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
  7. "Blue Jays Invite 14 to Spring Training". bluebirdbanter.com. January 12, 2016. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
  8. "Ben Nicholson-Smith on Twitter". Twitter. March 12, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2016.
  9. Rosenbaum, Mike (April 7, 2016). "Where the Blue Jays' Top 30 prospects are starting the season". MLB.com. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  10. Leboff, Michael (July 10, 2016). "Urena delivers first career five-hit game". MiLB.com. Retrieved July 10, 2016.
  11. Chisholm, Gregor (July 28, 2016). "Urena, Reid-Foley crack Top 100 Prospects list". MLB.com. Retrieved July 28, 2016.
  12. Jackson, Josh (August 3, 2016). "Promotion doesn't slow down Jays' Urena". MiLB.com. Retrieved August 4, 2016.
  13. Peng, Michael (August 10, 2016). "Fisher Cats' Urena hits record three triples". MiLB.com. Retrieved August 12, 2016.
  14. Chisholm, Gregor (November 18, 2016). "Blue Jays protect Urena, Alford from Rule 5 Draft". MLB.com. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
  15. @KeeganMatheson (April 2, 2018). "#BlueJays set minor league rosters. Much more on these coming at @BaseballTOR today and tomorrow" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  16. Davidi, Shi (April 28, 2018). "Blue Jays farm report: Alford playing catchup after missing time". sportsnet.ca. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
  17. "Teoscar Hernandez highlights first wave of Blue Jays' September call-ups". Sportsnet. August 31, 2017. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
  18. "Castellanos's grand slam, rare triple play lead Tigers past Blue Jays". Sportsnet. September 8, 2017. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
  19. "Blue Jays mount late comeback in walk-off win over Orioles". Sportsnet. September 12, 2017. Retrieved September 13, 2017.
  20. "Blue Jays officially sign Shaw to one-year, $4M contract; DFA Urena". Sportsnet. December 30, 2019. Retrieved December 30, 2019.
  21. Todd, Jeff (January 10, 2020). "Orioles Claim Richard Urena, Designate Pat Valaika". mlbtraderumors.com. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
  22. Todd, Jeff (February 19, 2020). "Orioles Claim Andrew Velazquez, Designate Richard Urena". MLBTradeRumors.com.
  23. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/12/blue-jays-sign-richard-urena-to-minor-league-deal.html
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