Tony Blengino, Special to ESPN.com 8y

Jurickson Profar 2.0: Has the former top prospect finally emerged?

MLB, Texas Rangers

Former scout and baseball exec Tony Blengino shares memories from his early observations (and beyond) of Texas Rangers infielder Jurickson Profar.

I first saw Jurickson Profar play late in the summer of 2010, when his short-season Spokane club faced off with the Mariners' Everett club in the Northwest League championship series. I was working in the Mariners' front office then, and Everett was an easy trip up I-5.

Sure, I was checking in on our own AquaSox farmhands, but truth be told, it wasn't exactly a prospect-laden group. Steven Baron was the only player in the lineup that night who had a major league appearance in his future; pitchers Yoervis Medina, Stephen Pryor and Tom Wilhelmsen had played there during the regular season but had since been promoted.

Profar was the show. He was all of 17 years old, had been a highly touted international free agent, and a pretty good buzz was building regarding his performance against much older players. He had four plus tools, three of them arguably plus-plus, and you could at least dream about his power becoming a fifth above-average tool.

He had a sixth clear tool, however. Profar looked like he had been placed on earth to play this game; his field awareness, instincts and vision were all impeccable, in all facets of the game. If there was an extra base to be taken, he took it. If there was a defensive edge to be gained, he seized it. And he did it all with joy -- he smiled, communicated effectively with his teammates, he led by example -- at such a tender age.

Everett wound up winning a hard-fought series, and when I went down to the field to congratulate our players afterward, I broke a self-imposed rule and sought out Profar, simply to congratulate him on a brilliant series and to tell him that I'd see him before long in a stadium with a third deck on it.

Things didn't exactly go as planned afterward. Yes, he did sail through the minor leagues, reaching the majors for his first cup of coffee at age 19 in 2012, and again for a more extended trial the next year.

Each year, I compile an ordered list of top minor league position player prospects, based on production and age relative to league and level. It doesn't take defense into consideration and isn't adjusted for position or park factors, which doesn't treat premium position players like shortstops or catchers very kindly. I use it as more of a follow list, but it's still interesting to see where players fall on it.

Profar ranked No. 10, No. 14 and No. 28 among all full-season minor league position players, which is pretty darned good for a shortstop. I've been ranking minor leaguers for about a quarter century now, and Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Correa, two much larger men who either did (Rodriguez) or likely will (Correa) have to move off the shortstop position, are the only ones that rated as clearly better offensive prospects.

The two closest shortstop comps? How about Derek Jeter (No. 35, No. 16, No. 21) and Francisco Lindor (No. 72, No. 44, No. 73, No. 47). Pretty good company, and Profar projected to have a marginally better bat than both.

All of 2014, plus the lion's share of 2015, was stolen from Profar due to serious shoulder injuries, which eventually required surgery to repair a torn labrum. He went from being a surefire long-term superstar to a huge question mark: Would Profar even play again, and if he did, would he be more than a shell of his former self?

Well, we've gotten some positive answers in the first half of the 2016 season, to be sure. He started the season at Triple-A, primarily playing shortstop, looking none the worse for wear, except for markedly lesser arm strength. The bat looked pretty good for a guy who had missed nearly two solid years, as he hit .284-.356-.426 in 189 plate appearances, good enough to jump on the tail end of my offensive position player rankings. At 23, he was still one of the younger Triple-A Pacific Coast League regulars.

Then, after being promoted to the big club, he took off. Through Sunday's games, he was hitting .348-.375-.511, playing all four infield positions, but primarily second and third base due to team need.

So what do we have in Jurickson Profar? Is this offensive onslaught real or just small-sample-size noise? Even more importantly, what do the Rangers do with him? They have had a superb first half but have gaping holes in their starting rotation that will need to be addressed. Is Profar the exact type of trade bait needed to go get their man, as they did in acquiring Cole Hamels last season?

To help answer these questions, let's dig into Profar's plate appearance frequency and production by BIP-type data to get a feel for the true offensive talent level he has exhibited so far this season.

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