Yankees: 6 infield trade targets for the offseason’s final month

1. Jurickson Profar, Rangers

The Yankees have long had interest in Profar, who was ranked as the game’s top overall prospect by Baseball America before the 2013 season. In fact, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported back in November that the Yanks were “making a push” to acquire the Texas farmhand.

Unfortunately, a combination of injuries and ineffectiveness have largely rendered the Curacao native production-less during the intervening five years. He’s played in just 206 career major league games and batted a mere .229/.309/.329. In 2017, Profar appeared in 22 contests for Texas.

Nevertheless, Profar is still quite young (25 on Opening Day). He can handle all four infield positions, which would come in handy considering Greg Bird might be made out of a combination of glass and feathers. And if you squint hard enough, you can still catch a glimmer of that old uber-prospect sheen.

Between Joey Gallo at first base, Rougned Odor at second base, Adrian Beltre at third base and Elvis Andrus at shortstop, Texas features one of the game’s most hitter-ish infields.

Profar figures to compete with Hanser Alberto for the utility job and it’s not hard to envision a real opportunity opening up for him at some point. At the same time, Profar’s fitness for that opportunity depends entirely on how well he’s hitting the baseball.

Ultimately, Profar is probably expendable. If Texas is serious about making a playoff push (and all signs point to yes), they need to deepen their pitching staff. The Yankees surely wouldn’t deal any of their top six relievers straight-up for Profar. But with the Bombers’ depth of arms, they could undoubtedly slap together a compelling offer.

Profar would still have to hit to earn playing time. But he’s controllable through 2021, and the Yanks could bring him along slowly. With how long he’s been around, it’s easy to forget how young Profar still is.

He’s likely never going to become the superstar he was once touted as, but Profar should still have a real future as a productive big league infielder.