The San Diego Padres recently completed a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers losing Luis Urías leaving a gap in the Padres infield. General Manager AJ Preller decided to bring back a player he was quite fond of. The Padres have acquired infielder Jurickson Profar from the Oakland Athletics. The return heading to the Athletics is catcher Austin Allen and a player to be named later (PTBNL). It is a light return as expected as the Athletics are looking to cut their payroll after the second American League Wildcard loss in a row this past postseason.
Sources: #Padres acquire Jurickson Profar.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) December 2, 2019
The Oakland A’s have traded infielder Jurickson Profar to the San Diego Padres for catcher Austin Allen and a player to be named later, sources tell ESPN.
Profar was likely to be non-tendered before the 8 p.m. ET deadline, and Oakland wound up getting Allen, 25 with some pop.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 2, 2019
The Athletics traded for Profar before the 2019 season to fill a utility role in the infield with experience at so many different positions. Profar had a breakout season in 2018, two years after returning to the big leagues after he struggled during his first two seasons in 2012 and 2013. In 2019, Profar struggled through with a .218/.410/.301 slash line with 20 home runs and 67 RBI for the Athletics. Profar will slot into the second base position for the Padres infield who lost Urías in a trade recently. Padres GM AJ Preller was a big fan and played a good role in getting Profar to the Rangers, so it would make sense that the Padres would trade for him before he was non-tendered by the Athletics.
On the return, the Athletics got a catcher, Allen, who excelled at the Triple-A level in 2019, seeing 34 games at the MLB level as well. Allen is a twenty-five-year-old who was drafted by the Padres in the fourth round of the 2015 MLB Draft. In 67 games with the Padres Triple-A affiliate, Allen managed a .330/.663/.379 slash line with 21 home runs and 67 RBI. While it is a smaller sample size, Allen posted a .215/.277/.282 slash line with no homers and only 3 RBI for the Padres in 34 games in 2019. The Athletics are looking to cut down their payroll and this move does just that.
