Jurickson Profar signs a 3-year, $42M deal with the Atlanta Braves

On By Littum

Outfielder Jurickson Profar has signed a three-year, $42 million deal with the Atlanta Braves, the team announced Thursday.

According to the Braves, Profar, who was the no. 15 on Yahoo Sports’ Top 50 MLB free agent list, earn $12 million in 2025 and $15 million in 2026 and 2027.

Profar has agreed to donate 1% of his salary to Atlanta Braves Foundationwhich aims to “build community through baseball that engages Braves Country, reaches vulnerable populations and improves equity and access to sports, health, education and well-being for children, families and communities.”

Last season with the San Diego Padres, Profar posted a career year, hitting .280, hitting 24 home runs and driving in 85 runs with 10 stolen bases. Among National League lefties, his 4.3 fWAR was the highest, and he was above the 90th percentile in expected wOBA (.364) and expected batting average (.283). He was also the sixth best hitter by wRC+ in the NL.

Profar’s play in the field earned him a starting nod in left for the NL All-Star team, and his production at the plate resulted in a Silver Slugger Award. He will now join an Atlanta outfield that will also feature Michael Harris II and Ronald Acuña Jr., who is returning from a torn ACL.

Profar began his MLB career with four seasons with the Texas Rangers before joining the Oakland A’s in 2019. His first stint with the Padres lasted from 2020-22 before signing with the Colorado Rockies. He was then released by Colorado and rejoined the Padres.

Traditionally one of the more active teams each winter, Atlanta had been eerily quiet this offseason, coming off its seventh straight trip to October. The Braves were one of just a handful of teams yet to sign a free agent to a guaranteed big-league deal this winter, but they finally got on the board with the addition of Profar on a three-year deal worth of $42 million.

The Padres — with whom Profar starred in his breakout 2024 season — also have yet to sign a major-league free agent this winter, and they surely would have loved a reunion with Profar. But San Diego’s ongoing ownership dispute and bloated payroll made retaining Profar seemingly difficult. Instead, he joins a Braves team that had an unsettled left field depth chart that expected to feature the largely unproven Jarred Kelenic and recent signee Bryan De La Cruz in some sort of split. Now that duo can cover right field until Ronald Acuña Jr. returns from an ACL injury, after which Acuña should join Profar and center fielder Michael Harris II to form one of the more dangerous outfield trios in the National League.

The shifty Profar and his excellent on-base skills will provide much-needed balance to a Braves lineup that was severely underwhelmed in 2024. While Profar’s plate discipline has always been stellar, it was a notable increase in power production supported by major strides in his batted- ball quality that fueled his breakout in 2024, which he has now parlayed into an eight-figure deal. While he will no longer be a main character in the Dodgers-Padres rivalry, Profar could continue to play a key role for a team hoping to dethrone the 2025 champions. — Shusterman