San Diego Padres: Jurickson Profar is Not the Answer at Second Base

It’s still very early in the season, but you have to figure the leash is short for Jurickson Profar as the San Diego Padres second baseman.

In a normal season perhaps the San Diego Padres allow Jurickson Profar more time to figure things out at the plate.

But in a 60-game sprint, you can’t wait for guys to figure it out.

Profar started the season in a prominent role primarily hitting fourth in the lineup. That at least tells you the level of confidence Jayce Tingler had in him coming out of summer camp.

However, he’s slipped down in the order after a slow start and was hitting ninth in the last two games of the Dodgers’ series.

The results have not been good for Profar with just 3 hits in 37 at-bats.

His saving grace is that he’s walked 7 times and has a 15.6 percent walk rate, which would by far be the best of his career.

After posting a BABIP of .218 last year, his luck has been even worse in 2020 at .069. At some point you have to wonder if it’s bad luck or if he’s just not hitting the ball well enough to get hits.

Or, has the defense adjustment so much to his swing and he can’t make the adjustment to hit it where they’re not.

His line drive rete of 20 percent is just below his career average of 21.5 percent, and his hard-hit percentage of 40 would be a career-high for him.

However, he’s still pulling the ball way too much with a pull percentage of 46.7. When teams know that and with the shifts they employ in today’s game, it becomes entirely too easy to get hitters like Profar out.

Again, the Padres just don’t have time for him to figure it out in this short season.

It’s time to give someone else a chance at second base.

I mentioned in my article on Jake Cronenworth the other day that once Eric Hosmer comes back I hope Cronenworth gets the majority of playing time at second.

Nothing against Profar, but I never thought the trade for him made sense.

And after seeing Austin Allen hit a bomb for the Athletics on Wednesday night, and with the way our catchers are struggling to hit, it makes me hate that trade even more.

Hopefully Tingler doesn’t just keep running Profar out there hoping he’ll find his stride. In this truncated season you have to ride the hot hand, and right now that is not Jurickson Profar.