Padres may not be done at second after Jurickson Profar acquisition

With the departure of highly touted prospect Luis  Urias in last week’s trade, the San Diego Padres left themselves with a dilemma at second base for 2020.

Sure, there are multiple highly rated prospects in the minor league system that should one day give the San Diego Padres their second basemen to pair with Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. But who plays the position in 2020? Maybe even 2021?

General Manager AJ Preller took one step closer to answering that question on Monday with the acquisition of former Rangers top prospect Jurickson Profar.

The non-tender deadline stimulated trade activity all over MLB with the Padres jumping in to help resolve one of their biggest offseason questions.

Watching Profar play for the Rangers in 2018, one could be caught salivating over his skills. A switch-hitting infielder with good defensive movements and a strong arm, Profar also possessed enough power to keep pitchers honest.

Slashing .254/.335/.458 with 20 homers in 2018, his age 24 season, Profar was surprisingly traded to the Oakland Athletics in the offseason.

His 2019 did not impress.

Apparently acquiring a case of the yips early in the season, Profar had 13 errors at second base in 2019. He also struggled at the plate with a .218/.304/.410 batting line in 518 plate appearances.

This underwhelming performance going into his last arbitration-eligible season seems to have made him expendable for the A’s.

AJ Preller once again falls back on his Ranger days to trade for a player he is familiar with and helped acquire for Texas.

The Padres sent catcher Austin Allen and a player to be named later in the exchange. Allen is a bat first, power-hitting catcher with defensive liabilities, not unlike Francisco Mejia. Not someone that figured into the Padres future.

So the silver lining to Profar’s 2018?

His batting line versus lefties — .305/.378/.457. Even if he is unable to return to his 2018 form there is value in a platoon with utility infielder Greg Garcia.

Garcia hit .254/.320/.373 versus righties last season with a .743 OPS.

If Profar responds well to a change of scenery and coaching the Padres could catch lightning in a bottle to bridge them to the second baseman of the future.

Don’t forget about me

In the interest of completeness, we need to mention that Ian Kinsler is still on the Padres roster and was not released during the purging of the 40 man roster that occurred before the Rule V draft deadline.

That somewhat surprised me as that would have been an easy, though expensive, way to clear a roster spot.

After watching Kinsler struggle mightily during the first half of 2019, the Padres limited his second-half playing time and he was able to be a bit more productive.

His batting line of .217/.278/.368 for $3.75 million is overall non-productive and will not fit onto a roster fighting to turn itself into a playoff-contending team.

Profar is far younger with a lot more potential and Kinsler will be 38 this season. Barring anyone trading for him, which is unlikely, Kinsler can’t be allowed to take up a roster spot and must be designated for assignment or released before the end of spring training.

All of this leads me to wonder if Preller is done with shopping for a full-time second baseman for the 2020 season.

Seeing as he has more pressure on him to perform this coming year I would not be surprised to find him adding more depth at the position before we head into the season.

Some competition at second would hopefully bring out the best in all concerned and make the final decision more difficult for the organization.

I really would love to see the Jurickson Profar that the Rangers developed re-emerge. He would make the Padres much better in 2020 and who wouldn’t want to see the Machado, Tatis Jr, Profar, and Hosmer combination around the infield?