Texas Rangers Top 20 Prospects: No. 3

No. 3: Jurickson Profar

SS - S/R
5-11 - 165 - 2/20/93
Willemstad, Curacao

Jurickson Profar was signed as an undrafted free agent on July 2, 2009, by the Texas Rangers out of Willemstad, Curacao.

Profar spent the 2010 season with the Spokane Indians as a 17-year-old. He hit .250 with four home runs and 23 RBI.

 

Jamey Newberg’s profile on Jurickson Profar:
Jurickson Profar, SS

At the end of the 2010 season, Baseball America's Jim Callis was asked to rank the top five prospects in baseball who had yet to reach a full-season league. One (Manny Machado) was the third overall pick in the 2010 draft. Two others (Zack Cox and Yasmani Grandal) were also 2010 first-rounders, and each 21 years old. Another (Gary Sanchez) received the third-largest signing bonus ever paid to a Dominican teenager - and fourth highest ever paid by the Yankees ($3 million). The other one was Profar, the youngest of the five and now the most experienced of them. The 17-year-old from Curacao is a dynamic athlete whom most interested teams wanted to put on a mound when his July 2 eligibility came up in 2009, but instead he made his pro debut as the youngest player in the Northwest League in 2010, serving as Spokane's everyday shortstop and more than holding his own. The switch-hitter put together a .250/.323/.373 line in 252 at-bats, striking out a manageable 46 times against pitchers four and five years older, and his 19 doubles were one short of the league lead. BA ranked him as the NWL's number one prospect after the season. Profar earns raves for his makeup and his instincts as much as for his plus tools across the board (the power lags the rest, though he did go deep on his seventh pro at-bat), and is validating the Rangers' decision to sign him not as a pitcher, but as a high-ceiling shortstop.

No. 4: OF Engel Beltre
No. 5: LHP Robbie Erlin
No. 6: LHP Michael Kirkman
No. 7: SS Luis Sardinas
No. 8: LHP Robbie Ross
No. 9: RHP David Perez
No. 10: RHP Wilmer Font
No. 11: OF Jake Skole
No. 12: C Jorge Alfaro
No. 13: RHP Fabio Castillo
No. 14: RHP Joe Wieland
No. 15: RHP Matt Thompson
No. 16: RHP Luke Jackson
No. 17: 3B Christian Villanueva
No. 18: LHP Miguel De Los Santos
No. 19: 3B Mike Olt
No. 20: RHP Omar Beltre