Dodgers baseball player Julio Urias arrested after a public incident of sexist violence

An incident of sexist violence threatens the career of Mexican Julio Urias. The star pitcher of the Los Angeles Dodgers was arrested Sunday night near BMO Stadium, where Lionel Messi and Inter Miami defeated the local team, LAFC. The baseball player was among the celebrities invited to the MLS game. Around 11:00 p.m. (local time), the athlete was arrested for an event that occurred inside Exposition Park, where the field is located. The police took Urias to the county jail, where he was booked around 1:00 a.m. and spent much of the morning until he was released after paying bail of $50,000. The Dodgers, who already experienced a similar case with Urias in 2019, said this Monday that the player will not travel to Miami to play a series against the Marlins pending more information about the events.

The police who arrested Urias, 27, did not immediately specify the charges, according to the Associated Press agency. The authorities have said that throughout this Monday, which is a long weekend in the United States for Labor Day, they will release new details about the charges arising from the arrest. The middle TMZ, specialized in the world of entertainment and celebrities, assures that a person saw a physical attack by Urias on a woman. This same witness would have been the one who reported the incident to the Exposition Park police. The player will appear in court for the facts on Wednesday, September 27.

The Los Angeles baseball team, with whom Urias has been with for eight years and was champion in 2020, has stated that it is aware of the incident involving its star, but that it is waiting for further details. “The organization will not make any further comments at the moment,” says the message posted on social networks. Urias has a contract with the team of 14 million dollars annually. He was called to be the starting pitcher in the third and final game against the series against Florida. The Dodgers were counting on his left arm for the close of the regular season and the start of the playoffs, on October 3. This season, the athlete from Culiacan has a record of eleven wins and eight losses with an average of runs allowed of 4.6 (ERA).

Urias has a history of domestic violence. On May 13, a person allegedly saw the pitcher, then 22, push the woman with him in a parking lot at the Beverly Hills shopping center. The witness reported to the police what he had witnessed. According to the report written by the agents that day, Urias denied having pushed her and said that the woman had fallen.

Los Angeles prosecutors did not file charges after that incident at the Beverly Center. The city’s lawyers argued that their decision was based on the fact that the woman did not present physical injuries, she did not identify herself as a victim to the police and because Urias had no criminal record. They also demanded that the pitcher attend therapy for a year to avoid sexist violence. The Prosecutor’s Office put him on probation and made it clear that he would initiate criminal action if the player was involved in a similar incident within a year.

The baseball league, the MLB, did subject Urias to an internal investigation. At the same time, he imposed a 20-game ban on him for rules put in place in 2015 to combat domestic violence. No player in this professional league has been punished twice under this same protocol.

The Dodgers already had a similar incident with Trevor Bauer, another of their star pitchers. The pitcher was suspended for 324 games in 2021 after three women accused him of sexual assault. MLB conducted a nine-month investigation into the events. Bauer, who was separated from the team but continued to be paid, denied the accusations at all times and explained to those in charge of the investigation that the alleged attacks occurred in the midst of consensual sexual relations. As happened with Urias, the Los Angeles Prosecutor’s Office refused to file charges. The League, however, punished him for two years. Review of the case by a mediator between MLB and the players’ union resulted in the punishment being reduced to 194 games. Bauer returned to the sport in December of last year. His team, Los Angeles, released him in January 2023. Since March, the 32-year-old right-hander has played for the Yokohama Baystars of Japan.

Now, the Dodgers must deal with the case of Julio Urias.

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