‘I love to win.’ Ex-Texas Rangers prospect Jurickson Profar finds new home with Padres.
For those Texas Rangers fans not feeling old enough today, the following will add a few years.
Jurickson Profar is 27 years old.
Then again, for as long as Profar was on the Rangers’ radar and still is for those who are looking back at where things might have gone wrong, it might seem like he should be 40.
The Rangers signed Profar in 2009 when he was 16, and he was the top prospect in baseball three years later. He was considered a future All-Star, a switch-hitter who would grow into his power and could make a difference in the field and with his baseball IQ.
But all Profar ever truly wanted was to be a winner, and while injuries hampered him early in his career and he has fallen short on expectations, he has proven to be a winning piece.
Profar is back in the postseason for the third time with his third different team, this time with the San Diego Padres. He was in the lineup as the Padres opened their best-of-5 National League Division Series on Tuesday at Globe Life Field against the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Profar is content with a career that is still far from over.
“I’m the player I always wanted to be,” Profar said Tuesday afternoon while in the NL’s bubble hotel. “Just play winning baseball every day and do everything to win. I love to win. I will do anything to win.”
That includes not being selfish as he heads toward free agency. Profar is not an everyday player, though he started two of the three games in the Padres’ wild-card round win and was on the field as they closed out the St. Louis Cardinals.
He had the second-best season of his career, behind only his 2018 breakthrough with the Rangers. Profar batted .278 with a .711 OPS for the Padres, who acquired him in the off-season after one season with Oakland.
Profar was sent to the A’s by the Rangers in December 2018 in a three-game trade that produced outfielder Eli White from Oakland and left-handers Brock Burke and Kyle Bird from Tampa Bay.
The trade came after Profar his 20 home runs as primarily a third baseman as Adrian Beltre dealt with injuries in his final season. The Rangers needed a third baseman for 2019, but Profar’s defense had lagged and the Rangers were concerned that agent Scott Boras would keep the Rangers from signing Profar to a long-term contract.
That one season with the Rangers, though, helped Profar finally realize what it takes to be an MLB regular after three frustrating seasons coping with a shoulder injury that eventually required surgery and cost him the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
“My last year in Texas, I really got a chance to play and I started to get comfortable playing at the big-league level,” Profar said. “Then I got traded and I had to start again. This year, I feel the Padres are the same as the Rangers. I’m very comfortable here.”
He has known general manager A.J. Preller for 13 years and manager Jayce Tingler for 11. Preller was in charge of the Rangers’ scouting operation in Latin America when the Rangers successfully wooed Profar, and Tingler was a manager at the lower levels of the Rangers’ farm system.
That familiarity eased the transition, and the energy the Padres play with and the Latin flavor they’ve added to their chemistry has Profar feeling the way he did when he played growing up in his native Curacao.
“The first time I had the chance to be introduced to Jurickson, I went down to Curacao and saw him when he was 14 years old,” Preller said. “It’s been a whirlwind for him.
“Just being back around him, I think he’s the same guy we saw when he was 14 or 15 years old. He’s overcome some experiences, but the love of the game, the competitor, the effervescent smile, the energy, I think that’s really helped him here this year.”
Just as Profar never wanted to leave the Rangers, he hopes the Padres will re-sign him this off-season.
If not, he has experience with moving on. And winning.
“I’ve learned a lot,” Profar said.
