Video released in former Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías' domestic violence case amid MLB investigation
Content warning: This story includes descriptions of alleged domestic violence.
The Los Angeles Times obtained video on Wednesday of the domestic violence incident that led to former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías’ arrest last year.
Urías pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge in May after his arrest in September 2023. He was placed on 36 months of summary probation and required to complete 30 days of community labor and a 52-week domestic violence counseling course, among other things.
Urías was arrested on Sept. 3, 2023, while he was attending an LAFC game at BMO Stadium near downtown Los Angeles. In the video released by the Times on Wednesday, Urías is seen charging at his wife, who was walking ahead of him, and slamming her into a fence outside of the stadium.
Multiple other people rush in to try to pull Urías off of his wife, but then he is seen swinging at her while screaming and swearing in Spanish. He is eventually pulled off her and taken away by security. The video lines up with the initial incident report, which said that Urías “pushed the victim against a fence and pulled her by the hair or shoulders.”
The video, per the report, was shot by an anonymous witness and had not been previously released. It was provided to the Times by the California Highway Patrol, which is the agency that investigated the incident.
Both Urías’ agent and the Major League Baseball Players Association declined to comment to the Times. Major League Baseball is still investigating the incident.
Urías was arrested on suspicion of felony domestic violence at the time, but the county later declined to file felony charges. Several other charges were dismissed due to his no contest plea earlier this year.
Days after his arrest, MLB placed Urías on administrative leave, and the Dodgers quickly cleaned out his locker. He has not played since, and he is still a free agent.
His arrest last year was the second domestic violence incident he has been involved in since joining the league. He was suspended for 20 games in 2019 after he allegedly pushed a woman to the ground in a parking lot. He was not charged criminally in that incident.
If Urías is suspended again, he would be the first player in league history to be suspended multiple times under MLB’s domestic violence policy, which was put in place in 2015. He would be the fourth player suspended under the policy as a free agent, and that suspension would follow him to his next team.
It is unclear if or when MLB will hand down its ruling in the investigation. “MLB is continuing to gather all the relevant evidence in our investigation,” a league spokesperson told the Times on Wednesday.
Urías held a 4.60 ERA with the Dodgers in more than 117 innings on the mound in 2023, which marked his worst output since 2017. The 28-year-old helped lead the Dodgers to a World Series title in 2020, and he held the best ERA in the NL in 2022. He was on pace to sign a nine-figure contract in free agency.
