Rangers infielder Jurickson Profar. (PHOTO: John E. Sokolowski/USA TODAY Sports)
Over at MLB Daily Dish, Chris Cotillo passes along a juicy rumor:
There is an expectation around baseball that Mets’ starter Dillon Gee could be traded at some point during spring training, and some in the game believe the Rangers may make a push to acquire him, according to major-league sources. It is unclear if the sides are in active discussions about a deal for Gee, though Texas has been interested in the right-hander dating back to the Winter Meetings.
One scenario that is being thrown about in baseball circles, according to sources, is a deal that could send Jurickson Profar to the Mets for Gee and some additional pieces.
As Cotillo points out, there’s no real indication that the Mets and Rangers are talking about deal involving Gee and Profar. And since the Rangers have a good young middle infield in Elvis Andrus and Rougned Odor, the idea of trading Profar is certainly a fun one to throw around in baseball circles.
But unless some team is going to blow the Rangers away with a package for Profar, it makes no sense for the Rangers to trade him. And since Profar just endured season-ending surgery on his throwing shoulder — a procedure that calls into question his ability to play shortstop moving forward — it doesn’t seem likely a team will give up that much for him.
(USA TODAY Sports Images)
Just a couple of years ago, Profar was the consensus top prospect in all of baseball, a switch-hitting shortstop with a good glove, strong contact skills, some power, some speed, and a precocious plate discipline he showed off against much older competition.
But after an unspectacular part-season in 2013, when he was the youngest player in the Majors, the Curacao native missed all of 2014 with a partial tear in his shoulder that he tried to rehab. After that process proved unsuccessful, Profar went under the knife a couple of weeks ago.
Trading Profar now would mean dealing him at the nadir of his value, giving up on a massively talented 22-year-old who’s under team control through the end of the decade just because he’s hurt and there are a couple of guys ahead of him on the depth chart. Unless the Rangers are so concerned about his shoulder that they’re not even willing to facilitate his rehab, they might as well just keep him until he’s ready to play again, at which point he’ll certainly fetch way, way more in a trade.
Gee is a legit Major League starter, but he’s only under control through arbitration for this season and next, and he appears unlikely to give the Rangers significantly more than they’d get from the guys they already have penciled in to the back of their rotation.
Giving up a guy with Profar’s potential to add two years’ worth of Gee, with the Rangers coming off a 67-win season and facing a division with three potential contenders, just doesn’t seem like it’d be GM Jon Daniels’ best move unless he feels certain Profar’s arm is forever ruined. And if the Rangers are that eager to give up on Profar, it should be a pretty big red flag to any acquiring team.
