Dodgers ace Julio Urias was invited to pitch for Team Mexico in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, but the Los Angeles front office asked him not to participate. Urias was coming off his first big-league season and was just 20 years old, so there were concerns about overwork at that delicate stage in his career.
Now 26, Urias is a proven veteran who has shown his durability as one of the best starting pitchers in the National League, and when Team Mexico came knocking again, he and the Dodgers organization were comfortable with him saying sí.