File this under “eh, may not happen, but it’s interesting.” 

Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports that the Rays have “checked in” with the Rangers regarding a possible trade for Jurickson Profar. 

The Rays need a second baseman now that Logan Forsythe has been traded.  Their most obvious move is to move Brad Miller to second base and replace him with one of the several passable but unexciting first base options left on the market.  They could nab Profar, however, who is most suited to second.  Meanwhile, the Rangers have been rumored to be close to signing Mike Napoli for some time to cover their 1B job, which Profar is currently slated to share in a platoon while subbing elsewhere around the diamond.  Napoli in Texas and Profar in Tampa Bay makes a lot of sense. 

No matter what happens, it’d be interesting to see Profar get a whole season in the bigs at a set position.  The once top prospect missed the entire 2014 and 2015 seasons with shoulder injuries, but came back in the middle of 2016 and hit quite well for the Rangers for two months before falling off late in the year.  Was it fatigue or was he merely exposed as a not-so-great hitter?  Someone is going to find out this year.  It’ll be interesting to see who takes the gamble. 

This post brought to you by the “Society for Those Who Were Sorta Fixated on Profar for a Couple of Years and Who Have a Hard Time Letting Prospects Go.” 

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