The one-time top prospect Jurickson Profar now faces another lost season
Jurickson Profar was one the top prospect in all of baseball, considered a bona fide future superstar.
But if there’s one thing we’ve learned about baseball prospects, it’s that things hardly ever work out the way they’re supposed to. For every Bryce Harper there’s a Tim Beckham; for every Josh Hamilton who redeems what looked like a lost career, there’s a Mark Prior whose once-promising career fizzled out because of injuries.
We may be learning that lesson again with Profar. As was previously believed, Profar had labrum surgery today, and consequently will miss all of the 2015 season, after not playing a game last year.
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This means Profar will miss two straight very crucial years of development time, and of course we have no idea what kind of shape his arm or bat will be in by the time he’s ready to return to the field.
However, let’s not jump the gun and declare Profar a lost cause just yet; he’s anything but that. For one thing, he’s still very, very young:
It seems like just yesterday that the Rangers seemed like they had the curse of plenty in the middle infield between Profar, Elvis Andrus, and Ian Kinsler. Now Andrus’ $100 million contract looks like an albatross, Kinsler was traded for another albatross (Prince Fielder), and Profar will go into 2016 with only 94 career games played. How quickly things can change.
Profar, who hails from the Dutch island of Curacao, was less than impressive in his rookie season of 2013, putting up an OBP of .308 and a slugging percentage of .336. That plus the surgeries would seem to cast serious doubt on his career for the first time.
But no one’s giving up on Profar yet. This is a prospect scouts were gushing over two years ago, saying things like “What Profar does have, though, is what has been described as ‘off-the-charts makeup,’ terrific baseball instincts, and a maturity beyond his years. He’s a five-tool player, but unlike many five tool guys who are athletes that organizations are trying to turn into ballplayers, Profar is a ballplayer with athleticism.” (Lone Star Ball)
That sounds like someone who’s going to get plenty of chances in MLB. Unfortunately those chances won’t be coming any time soon.
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