10:32: The Profar contract contains an opt-out clause after each of the first two seasons, tweets Jon Heyman of MLB Network.
10:02: The Fathers agreed to re-sign the internal / external field Jurickson Profar in a three-year $ 21 million contract, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan (via Twitter) Profar is represented by Boras Corporation.
A new agreement with Profar marks the last strike in an ultra-aggressive winter for the Fathers, who have already acquired Blake Snell, Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove in the commercial market, in addition to signing the superstar of the Korean Baseball Organization Ha-Seong Kim on a four-year contract. Kim’s ability to jump across the field and support the trio of Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jake Cronenworth in any position it probably means that the Profar is again asked for more work on the grass in the field than in the field, although its versatility allows it to be deployed virtually anywhere Captain Jayce Tingler deems necessary.
The three-year term in Profar’s deal is somewhat surprising, although the Fathers had some competition for the future 28-year-old. The Royals were known to be interested in Profar and Jon Heyman of the MLB Network tweets that the Red Sox “tried” to hire Profar before he finally returned to San Diego.
The 2020 season was Profar’s first with the Fathers, who acquired it last winter under an agreement with the A’s. Profar had a disastrous start to the season, but had a hitting streak in the last three weeks of the season to end the year with a 0.278 / 0.343 / 0.428 hitting line.
Profar’s season is representative of the difficulty in evaluating the players that followed in such a short year; the final results look solid, but it should also be noted that at the end of the season, on August 27, Profar was hitting 0.181 / 0.291 / 0.319. This was certainly a matter of concern for some clubs, as was the fact that Profar was in the 23rd percentile or worse in terms of exit speed, impact rate and barrel rate, by Statcast.
That said, Profar was still a highly sought-after free agent. This is perfectly understandable since, in 2013, it was considered the potential number 1 consensus in all of baseball. Profar shot through the Rangers system after being hired as an amateur outside Curaçao, making his MLB debut at just 19 in the final weeks of the 2012 season. Unfortunately for him and the Rangers, a pair of shoulder injuries led to several surgeries, ending two full years of development.
Profar never established himself as a regular in Texas, struggling to find playing time behind a veteran infield that included players like Adrian Beltre and an on-your-first Elvis Andrus. Profar had an above-average year on the plate in 2018 as a utility player, but he still found himself negotiated with Oakland that winter – a game that didn’t work out. OA’s caught Profar in the hope that he could solidify second base for his remaining two years of team control, but he fought a borderline yips case that resulted in a series of pitch errors and hit just 0.218 / 0.310 / 0.401 in 139 games. Oakland exchanged it with San Diego after that year.
Despite the three-year contract, Profar is still in many ways a project. The 2020 and 2018 seasons are the only two years that he has been at least average on the plate and, as showed last season, he still hasn’t found much consistency on the plate. That said, it was Padres’ general manager, AJ Preller, who led international Ranger reconnaissance operations when Profar signed the 16-year contract. Based not only on the surprising size of the contract, but also on the various exclusion clauses, Preller apparently continues to firmly believe that Profar can match or exceed the previous year’s compound production.
That said, the inclusion of the two opt-out clauses eliminates any advantage for the Fathers in this contract. If Profar gets back on its way as a quick utility piece without a position where it is a true positive advocate, the Friars will be at risk for the $ 21 million. If he, at any time, performs above average, he will certainly return to the open market in search of a bigger business – especially due to his relative youth. The best result for the Fathers would be for Profar to rake in 2021 and return to the market, and this contract structure is essentially a $ 21 million bet that this will be the case.
The Fathers were already projected to open the season with a payroll of approximately $ 167 million before their new deal with Profar. That would have been a franchise record in its own right, but Friars’ ownership will continue to counter the common tendency to cut the payroll taken by most clubs this winter, rather than spending to new levels in their effort to dethrone the Dodgers. , who won eight consecutive division titles and, of course, brought down the Rays in the 2020 World Series. The $ 7 million annual value in Profar’s business also pushed the Fathers to more than $ 177 million in luxury tax obligations.