San Diego Padres: Jurickson Profar better come ready to compete in Spring Training

What happened in 2019?

His strikeout and walk rates were nearly identical from 2018 to 2019, so the only glaring difference is that BABIP.

He hit groundballs, flyballs, and line drives at nearly the same rate in those two seasons.

Profar did pull the ball almost 10 percent more of the time hitting it to the pull side almost 50 percent of the time in 2019.

But his soft, medium, and hard-hit percentages were pretty much the same from 2018 to 2019.

His outside the zone swing percentage (O-Swing %) did drop a little bit, but so did his outside the zone contact percentage (O-Contact %). And the drop for both wasn’t that drastic.

Meanwhile, his inside the zone swinging percentage (Z-Swing %) and inside the zone contact percentage (Z-Contact %) are basically identical in the two seasons.

One thing that hasn’t been talked about enough is that his defense at second base was not great last year. He posted a -10 DRS and -1 UZR in just over 1,000 innings at second base — the most at the position in a season in his career.

The best position for him — by the numbers — are actually first base and left field, which is interesting.

Profar, a switch-hitter, could also become a platoon option with Eric Hosmer at first base — as could Wil Myers.

He actually hit over .300 against left-handed pitchers last year as a right-handed hitter.