Henry Urrutia

Henry Alexander Urrutia Rodríguez

• Bats Both, Throws Right
• Height 6' 5", Weight 200 lb.

• Debut July 20, 2013

• Born February 13, 1987 in Victoria de las Tunas, Las Tunas Cuba

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Biographical Information

The son of Ermidelio Urrutia (cousin of Osmani Urrutia), Henry Urrutia is an outfielder like the other members of his family.

Urrutia debuted in the 2005-2006 Cuban Serie Nacional, hitting .246/~.328/.306. In the 2006-2007 season, he improved to .369/~.427/.517 as his father became his manager. His career line through 2006-2007 was .316/~.384/.437. Urrutia had another solid season in 2007-2008 for Las Tunas, hitting .314/.382/.500. He drove in 66 runs, just missing the league's top 10. In 2008-2009, Henry surpassed his legendary relative Osmani in average, hitting .365/.456/.513 in Osmani's final year; the younger Urrutia tied for 8th in the league in average.

Urrutia was better yet in 2009-2010, hitting .397/.461/.579 with 23 doubles, 12 home runs and 76 RBI in 83 games. He was 8th in the league in hits (121), 3rd in average behind Alfredo Despaigne and José Dariel Abreu and tied for 7th in doubles. He had little chance of the All-Star team, though, as the harder-hitting Despaigne, Frederich Cepeda and Alexei Bell were selected as the outfielders.

Urrutia then defected from Cuba. He was signed by Baltimore Orioles scout Fred Ferreira in 2012 for $778,500. He began his US career with a bang, hitting .365/.433/.550 with 16 doubles, 7 home runs and 37 RBI in 52 games for the Bowie Baysox and .367/.406/.467 with 12 runs in 15 games for the Norfolk Tides. He also had 8 assists and no errors. He was picked for the World team in the 2013 Futures Game. He started in right field, hitting 5th between Miguel Sano and Jordan Lennerton, and played the whole game. He grounded out against Taijuan Walker in the 2nd and against Anthony Ranaudo in the 4th. In the 6th, he hit into a double play while facing Eddie Butler, erasing Sano. In the 9th, he drew a walk from Kyle Crick. The World team lost, 4-2.

With nothing else to prove in the minors, Urrutia was then called up to the majors with Corey Dickerson hurt. In his big league debut for the Orioles on July 20, 2013, he batted 8th and played DH in a game against the Texas Rangers. He struck out against Ross Wolf his first trip up, then singled off Joe Ortiz to score Chris Davis. He was thrown out at home by David Murphy trying to score on a fly by Nate McLouth. To finish his day, he lined out against Ortiz and grounded out versus Cory Burns.

On August 19, 2015, Henry hit a walk-off homer off Carlos Torres of the New York Mets for his first big league long ball. It gave the Orioles a 5-4 win.

Sources

• Radiococo bio
• Cuban Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation
• 2013 Orioles Media Guide
• 2013 Futures Game

Related Sites

• Henry Urrutia on mlb.com