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It took just one pitch for Jurickson Profar to announce his arrival to the Braves

Eric Cole
Eric Cole

House That Hank Built

Atlanta Braves Spring Training / Matthew Grimes Jr./Atlanta Braves/GettyImages

For the Atlanta Braves, their big offseason move without question was signing Jurickson Profar. With Ronald Acuna Jr. out for at least the first month of the season and question marks in the corner outfield spots, getting a bat with Profar's pedigree to play out there was a big deal. It certainly doesn't hurt that Profar personality fits right in with this Braves squad and he grew up a Braves fan in Curacao.

Of course, adding Profar didn't come without some risk. While he was terrific with the Padres in posting an .839 OPS and making the All-Star team for the first time, it was also far and away the best season of his career. Given the lack of success overall in his career, it is fair to wonder if Profar's 2024 season was an anomaly.

However, the Braves were steadfast that his success was the result of tangible adjustments at the plate and not dumb luck. Profar wasted little time in beginning to reward Atlanta's faith as he is sent the first pitch he saw in spring training to the right field corner for a double.

Jurickson Profar announced his arrival to the Braves with a ringing double in spring training

It is always good to see a new player hit the ground running. No one would have batted an eye if Profar was rusty in his first look of spring because, well, everyone is right now. Instead, he jumped all over the first pitch he saw and put the barrel on it.

That is what the Braves are going to need a lot of out of Profar, especially early in the season. It looks like Atlanta will use him as their leadoff hitter early in the season with Acuna Jr. off and if he can consistently set the tone offensively at the top of the order, the absence of the 2023 NL MVP is going to hurt a lot less. Once Ronald is back, Profar will probably get moved down the order and probably give the Braves the deepest lineup in baseball.

His double against the Pirates also ended up mattering in the game itself. After he took second, Austin Riley was retired before Matt Olson hit an absolute nuke to dead center for a two-run homer to give the Braves an early lead. Let's just do that all the time, please.

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Eric Cole

Eric Cole

I started my career writing about baseball covering the Atlanta Braves for SB Nation's Talking Chop back in 2015 which has since been renamed Battery Power. After years of writing for those fine folks, I made the decision to take over as Site Expert at House That Hank Built before becoming a full-time MLB Staff Writer for FanSided in 2023. Along the way, I have been a guest on multiple ESPN radio affiliates as well as 680 The Fan and 92.9 The Game to discuss Braves baseball and especially Braves prospects and was a long-time host on the Battery Power podcast. These days, I continue to write about the Braves as well as covering the Astros, Padres, and Angels with particular expertise with minor league coverage, the MLB Draft, and bashing Anthony Rendon when possible. When I am not writing about or talking about baseball (which is seldom), I am an avid baseball card collector (Maddux and Soroka being my primary personal collections) and I also collect shark teeth. All other sports are mostly dead to me as my Bills have broken my heart too many times.