Colorado Rockies: Jurickson Profar endures baptism by fire to start 2023 season

For Jurickson Profar of the Colorado Rockies, it has been a baptism by fire start to the 2023 Major League Baseball season.

A veteran of nine professional seasons, Profar was a late addition to the Rockies roster, signing a one-year contract on March 21 for the 2023 campaign.

Jurickson Profar, now with Colorado Rockies, notched career highs for games played, hits and doubles last year with San Diego.

A year ago, the 30-year-old native of Willemstad, Curacao, played in a career-high 152 games (141 starts in left field) with San Diego, slashing .243/.331/.391 while compiling career highs for hits (140) and doubles (36).

He was a key part of the Padres’ push to the 2022 National League Championship Series, with .250/.365/.318 averages in 12 postseason contests.

Released by the Padres, the switch-hitting outfielder endured an uncertain offseason.

“I had to be very, very patient in the offseason,” he said. “It was very slow.”

Profar, who was originally signed by Texas as an international free agent in 2009, played in four games (3-for-13 at the plate) for Team Netherlands at this spring’s World Baseball Classic.

The Team Netherlands manager was Rockies staff member Hensley Meulens.

“He’s a really, really good coach,” Profar said of Colorado’s hitting coach. “I’ve known him for a long time. It’s going to be an exciting year working with him.”

But, for Profar, just to get to the start of the 2023 year proved to be quite a mountain to climb.

After the WBC, he returned to his home in Curacao. But his return to the U.S. was delayed due to issues with his visa.

“The problem was here in the states with paperwork,” he explained of the delay which ended up in Profar seeing no game action during spring training while the team was at its Cactus League facility in Scottsdale, Arizona.

When he was finally able to get to the mainland, the Rox were ready to break camp and depart for San Diego to open the 2023 season.

As the Rockies embarked on the campaign, Profar remained behind in Arizona to try and quickly get game-ready.

He joined the Rockies during the third game of the four-game series against the Padres before making his initial appearance in the series finale on Sunday, going 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.

He picked up his first hit as a Rockie on Tuesday in a road contest against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Although he started the season with just one hit in 11 at-bats in his first three games wearing the purple, Profar is excited about being with the current edition of the Blake Street Bombers.

“A great, great opportunity,” he said of coming to Colorado after MLB stops in Texas (2012-13, 2016-17), Oakland (2019-20) and San Diego (2020-22). “We have a very good team. We just have to click together. It’s going to be a good year.”

It was a good start for Profar on Thursday in his Colorado home debut, making a highlight reel catch and adding his second hit of the campaign to the box score.

Profar, who has moved into the team’s leadoff spot while occupying left field, hopes his 836 career games of MLB experience will pay off for a Rockies 40-man roster that still features several young players.

“We have a good team, good guys, good names in the lineup,” he said. “We just have to play together.”

“I play hard every day and (want) to give the team a chance to win every day, every night.”

For now, Profar is just glad to be able to compete for his new team every day and every night after overcoming obstacles to make it to this point in the opening week of the 2023 campaign.