San Diego Padres: Luis Urias Is Having An Unbelievable August

San Diego Padres second base prospect Luis Urias has been hotter than the August weather this month.

Maybe Luis Urias is trading a few strikeouts for more home run power or maybe Urias is just benefitting from one of the perks of playing in El Paso, either way, the San Diego Padres prospect has continued to put up an impressive stat line and has been of the hottest bats in all of baseball, through the month of August.

Urias has been on the forefront of many people’s minds this season as fans have impatiently sat through Jose Pirela and company man second base in 2018. Despite a few rough patches in AAA El Paso, Urias has continued to do what he does best, get on base.

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He is currently slashing .290/.393/.444 and an .837 OPS in 428 at-bats (114 games) with the Chihuahuas. As of Monday morning, his 124 wRC+ matches his 2017 production from AA San Antonio. One thing that has greatly increased is his isolated power numbers (ISO), up to .154 after posting an .088 last season.

His production dipped significantly through the month of July, recording a .244 average and his lowest monthly OPS of the entire year (.731). Many began to find solace in keeping him down in the minor leagues for the rest of the season.

However, all of that changed once the calendar turned to August. Urias has already tied a season-high for hits in a single month (28) and his eight doubles are a monthly-high (in only 18 games).

Urias is currently riding a nine-game hit streak (he recorded three hits in three of them) in which he is hitting .514.

It has become extremely hard for the Padres to justify keeping Urias down in the minor leagues anymore. When roster expansion opens up to begin the month of September, expect to see Urias finally make his MLB debut.

I understand why a number of fans are so hesitant to put all of their trust into this magnificent farm system that AJ Preller and company have assembled for the San Diego Padres, however, if you were to place an all-in bet on one prospect, Luis Urias is that prospect. The one note of interest will be watching whether or not he continues to try and showcase more power (strikeouts remain slightly elevated) or if he returns to his lower-strikeout, line-drive approach in the major leagues. Either way, Urias is a name that will be penciled in at the top of the Padres lineup for a very long time.