{"id":605554,"date":"2026-03-04T11:18:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/605554\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T11:18:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:18:56","slug":"what-does-the-future-hold-for-jurickson-profar-and-the-atlanta-braves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/605554\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the future hold for Jurickson Profar and the Atlanta Braves?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jurickson Profar is currently set to miss the entire 2026 season after reportedly failing a test for performance-enhancing drugs<\/a> for the second time in as many seasons. This bombshell news has rocked the Atlanta Braves organization, it\u2019s rocked Braves Country and it has also rocked Profar\u2019s pockets as well. Assuming the suspension becomes official (more on that below), that\u2019s now $21 million forfeited of the $42 million that Profar agreed to collect over the course of three seasons playing for the Braves. That\u2019s a whole lot of money to be throwing away in such foolish fashion but (reportedly) here we are and there\u2019s not much that the Braves can do at this point other than figure out a way to utilize the now $18 million (Profar\u2019s $15 million plus luxury tax considerations as well) that just got freed up at the very last minute.<\/p>\n

So now there are a few questions as to what the immediate future holds for the Braves and Profar. Here\u2019s what comes to the top of my mind:<\/p>\n

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Will Jurickson Profar\u2019s suspension get shortened or thrown out?<\/p>\n

Shortly after the suspension was reported by Jeff Passan, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reported that the MLBPA was going to challenge the suspension and also file a grievance on Profar\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n

Is this going to go anywhere? I mean, sure it could but the odds are heavily tilted in the league\u2019s favor that this suspension will be upheld. The obvious example here is when Alex Rodriguez appealed his initial 211-game suspension. That still ended up with A-Rod doing 162 games on the sidelines so it wasn\u2019t like he took a decisive victory in order to return to the field.<\/p>\n

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Also, this isn\u2019t the first time that this has been challenged. In the vast majority of PED suspension appeals, there\u2019s one common thread amongst these suspensions: MLB has usually done a thorough job with their investigation and was able to prove intent to use PEDs instead of it being an accident. Considering this is Profar\u2019s second go-around with PED usage, I\u2019d imagine that it wouldn\u2019t be too difficult for the league to find intent here.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d say that this is simply the Union standing behind one of their own in procedural fashion. Again, there\u2019s a chance that the suspension could get cut down but I wouldn\u2019t count on it and I also wouldn\u2019t count on it being a substantial repeal as well. This is either going to be all-or-nothing and the odds of it being \u201call\u201d are incredibly slim.<\/p>\n

Will the Braves use that money immediately?<\/p>\n

As I mentioned earlier, the Braves now have a little bit of extra money to play with since that money likely won\u2019t be going into Profar\u2019s bank account this year. The bad news is that it\u2019s March 3, so good luck finding any sort of real impact player at this point. Sure, the Braves could go after an outfielder or a DH but when the most appealing options are guys like Max Kepler, Jesse Winker, Andrew McCutchen or even Jason Heyward, the Braves would clearly be doing the baseball equivalent of shopping in the clearance aisle.<\/p>\n

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Of course, they could very well just stick with what they\u2019ve got when it comes to their hitters\/fielders and go with a pitcher, instead. Lucas Giolito would be the obvious name but also we\u2019d be assuming that the Braves actually want him and that they\u2019re still dead serious about wanting to stick with their internal options going forward. If that\u2019s the case then it seems more likely that the Braves could go after an outfielder or a DH option and continue to place faith in their internal pitching options.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s frustrating in my opinion but it is what it is \u2014 Alex Anthopoulos is on record saying that he feels like the offense improving would be a bigger key to the success than the rotation and it\u2019s understandable considering that he\u2019s likely banking on the entire rotation not going on the 60-Day IL for a second season in a row. Still, it\u2019s also understandable that we\u2019re all feeling very jumpy after the injury woes that the rotation has already had to deal with. I do not envy the position that the GM is in at the moment but hey, that\u2019s why he\u2019s the GM and I\u2019m some random blogger. It\u2019s his job to figure it out.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s also the possibility that the Braves could sit on this money for the time being and utilize it later on during the season at the trade deadline. That\u2019s a lot of cash to have freed up to take on any potential contracts at the deadline and hopefully there would be far more appealing names once that time rolls around. There\u2019s no telling who would be available and that would certainly be a risky strategy to play the waiting game that deep into the season since there\u2019s also no guarantee that the Braves would be in a reasonable position to buy.<\/p>\n

Sure, we all figure that the team will still be better (even with all of the current missing names in the field and on the mound) but if we have another season of struggling to simply stay in the Postseason race then not spending the money right now could be a decision that comes back to haunt the Braves. Again, I do not envy the position that AA is in at the moment.<\/p>\n

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Will Jurickson Profar play another game for the Braves?<\/p>\n

I\u2019d imagine that if a lot of Braves fans had their way, the 2025 regular season finale would be the last time that we ever see Jurickson Profar put on the uniform and start for the Braves. There\u2019s no getting around it: He\u2019s let the team down for two straight seasons now due to making incredibly bad decisions with his judgment. There is no excuse at all for getting hit for using PEDs in this current era of baseball and it\u2019s even more confounding when you consider that this has happened after he got paid in free agency. It would still be a bad idea but it\u2019s one that\u2019s understandable if you\u2019re a hungry player looking to secure a big bag. Doing it now and throwing $21 million away is just plain foolish and it\u2019s even worse since his absence leaves the team in a lurch.<\/p>\n

I mentioned it in the initial article but it bears repeating: It made all the sense in the world to have Profar as the DH while Mike Yastrzemski hit against right-handed batters. Now, Yaz is going to be playing a whole lot more and the team\u2019s depth (which they worked so hard on improving during the offseason) is already being strained due to losing Profar for the whole season and Ha-Seong Kim and Sean Murphy for a month or two. This was one of the last things that the Braves needed and for it to come from another PED suspension to Profar is just horrendous.<\/p>\n

Depending on how the clubhouse and the rest of the organization feels, this could be one of those rare moments where the team just decides to eat the money and pay Profar the rest of his contract to stay home or play for whichever other team will take him. In all honesty, though, I could also see the Braves giving him a third chance for 2027.<\/p>\n

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As of right now, Profar would be the best currently-employed option to be the DH on the 2027 squad and assuming that they wouldn\u2019t want to go out and find another expensive replacement, that would be an easy way to ensure stability heading into 2027. It would stink for all of us fans to think about and it would also require an astonishing amount of fence-mending on Profar\u2019s part to smooth this over between now and 2027 but it is certainly a possibility.<\/p>\n

Either way, the Braves now have a problem on their hands and it\u2019s a crying shame. Jurickson Profar\u2019s initial signing seemed like a perfect fit for a team that had been having a revolving door at left field for a long time. Now, the Braves are stuck wondering what they\u2019re going to do since this relationship has been a very rocky one since the beginning.<\/p>\n

Will the team stick with Profar now that he\u2019s only getting $21 million of the $42 million that he signed on for? Will the Braves use that money immediately or wait until later on to utilize it? Will the suspension even be upheld? It\u2019s a murky future and one that could\u2019ve been avoided had Profar simply stayed clean. We\u2019ll see what happens but this certainly isn\u2019t a fun idea to think about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jurickson Profar is currently set to miss the entire 2026 season after reportedly failing a test for performance-enhancing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2394],"tags":[1691,1151,191,46,4166,5,192,633,873,128,813,4748,585,1385,119,4,656,65],"class_list":["post-605554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-atlanta-braves","tag-alex-rodriguez","tag-andrew-mccutchen","tag-atlanta","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-atlantabraves","tag-baseball","tag-braves","tag-ha-seong-kim","tag-jason-heyward","tag-jesse-winker","tag-jurickson-profar","tag-ken-rosenthal","tag-lucas-giolito","tag-max-kepler","tag-mike-yastrzemski","tag-mlb","tag-sean-murphy","tag-seattle-mariners"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116170638176914750","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}