The Oakland A’s believe Jurickson Profar is dealing with a case of the yips.
Profar, who was once upon a time one of the biggest prospects in baseball, has committed seven errors in 27 games this season — the most of any second baseman. The errors have been coming on what many would deem routine throws from second base. The Athletic, which reported that the A’s believe Profar has the yips, shared video of all the throws.
Here is one:
Shout out to Jurickson Profar for pretending to hurt his hand to try and sell that Grichuk slide, but replay showed nothing happened and he just made a terrible throw. Sometimes replay is alright with me. pic.twitter.com/5LBiRfoSob
— Julesyboy (@julesposner) April 27, 2019
Profar is hurting Oakland with his bad throws, to the point where they might not be able to continue playing him at second base. On Monday night, he spiked a throw that should have been a double-play. Instead, it opened up a 6-run inning for Boston. The team is now 2-4 in games where he has committed an error.
Profar called his play “frustrating” and said he would talk with teammate Marcus Semien about how to beat the issue. The A’s gave Profar the day off on Tuesday and ended up losing their fifth in a row.
On top of the fielding issues, Profar is only batting .165 with a .495 OPS.
