Wow, Ranger Jurickson Profar, recently the #1 prospect in baseball, to miss 2015
My personal 2011 Bowman Chrome Jurickson Profar card
It wasn't long ago that the Texas Rangers were appearing in back to back World Series contests. The team looked to be on the brink of greatness, and they fell just short in 2011, when a fly ball to right field barely escaped the outstretched glove of Nelson Cruz. Had he caught that ball, the Rangers would have won it all for the first time in franchise history. Instead, the St. Louis Cardinals came back from a 3-2 deficit to complete their thirteenth World Championship.
Rangers fans were dejected, but unfazed. After all, they had the #1 prospect in baseball in shortstop Jurickson Profar, and one of the elite farm systems in all of baseball. With talent at the Major League level, and players in the minors trying to find a roster spot, it looked like the Rangers were going to hang around for a while.
Then Josh Hamilton, the American League MVP in 2010 after a brilliant campaign that saw him hit .359 with 32 home runs, and 100 RBI, was gone to the Angels after a monster 2012 season, where he hit .285 with 43 home runs and 128 RBI. Nelson Cruz, after testing positive for steroid use, was not retained. After the 2013 season, the Orioles signed Cruz as a free agent. He went on to hit .271 with a league-best 40 home runs, and 108 RBI. One player after another, the team that won the American League in 2010 and 2011 started to disappear. Ian Kinsler to Detroit for Prince Fielder, Michael Young to Philadelphia for a brief time before retiring.
Profar, after a very short call up in 2012, got consistent playing time in 2013, showing occasional flashes of brilliance, but more inconsistency than anything, hitting .234 with 6 home runs and 26 RBI in 85 games. He then missed the entire 2014 season with a shoulder injury. Profar, who was nearly traded to the Tampa Bay Rays for the reigning Cy Young Award winner David Price, will now need to rehab after surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder.
The Rangers now have to hope that Rougned Odor is ready to go, in a big way.
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Building these sets: T206, 1953 Bowman Color, 1975 Topps.
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