A 16 year old shortstop $1.55mil international signee from Curacao, Jurickson Profar certainly brings a lot of excitement. When a player with that kind of potential makes their pro debut in low-A at age 17 and keeps their head above water it's reason to think the hype could blossom into real big league success. I had a chance to see him play a few games in the Northwest League this past season and I liked what I saw.
More on Profar after the jump...
Unlike most shortstop prospects Profar is actually likely to stay at the position. The first thing I noticed about him was his arm. A former pitcher with a fastball in the 90s he gets the ball to first quickly and accurately. He also showed good range making a nice play behind second to stop a base hit and another pretty diving snag.
At the plate he is less refined but was still an above average hitter in the league and had a 9.7 BB%, an impressive number for a 17 year old. The power isn't there yet but he showed flashes of it in the games I saw as well as on the stat sheet with 19 doubles in 252 AB. He'll never be a true power hitter but he has a shot at approaching double digit HRs one day. On the basepaths Profar thinks he's faster than he really is. The aggression is nice but there were a few plays I saw where he would have been thrown out if higher skilled players hadn't bobbled throws, granted, he's only 17 so the speed should improve with time
The Rangers youngster seems to have a good understanding of the game for such a young age. Still a long way from the majors, a couple more years of seasoning and Profar has a chance to become 2014-2015's Starlin Castro; a young shortstop who makes it to the majors with their glove and doesn't disappoint with the bat. With Elvis Andrus at short in Texas for the foreseeable future the Rangers will be able to take their time with Profar.