So much for Jurickson Profar being a fall-back option for a team that misses out on Manny Machado:
Infielder Jurickson Profar has been traded to the Oakland A's, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 21, 2018
As you probably recall, we really liked Profar for the Cubs, given the remaining offensive upside and the ability to play both second base and shortstop – his presence would have very clearly allowed the Cubs to part with Addison Russell without any kind of coverage issue. But when the Cubs signed Daniel Descalso, it seemed a very strong possibility that they weren’t going to be going the route of adding a starting-caliber middle infielder to the mix. Sigh.
In any case, Profar is headed to the A’s, and the deal is quite a bit bigger than that, apparently:
The trade of Jurickson Profar from Texas to Oakland is part of a three-way deal that includes the Tampa Bay Rays, league sources tell Yahoo Sports. The A’s will send prospect Eli White to the Rangers and the 38th overall pick in the 2019 draft, plus RP Emilio Pagan, to TB.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 21, 2018
The Rays will send lefty Brock Burke, a favorite among scouts, to Texas. At least three other minor leaguers are involved, sources tell Yahoo Sports, but the core deal: Jurickson Profar to the A’s, Brock Burke and Eli White to the Rangers, 38th pick and Emilio Pagan to the Rays.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) December 21, 2018
We’ll see the particulars when it’s all said and done, but the broad market impact here would seem to be (at most) tied to the second base market, which finally started to shake loose over the past week, with Ian Kinsler (Padres) and Daniel Murphy (Rockies) signing. Again, I’m not sure there’s much of an impact to the Cubs, unless they decide to surprise everyone and go after someone like D.J. LeMahieu (and thereafter trade Russell, and possibly Ben Zobrist, too), or maybe Marwin Gonzalez or Jed Lowrie or Brian Dozier.
I am not expecting anything like that, though.