Sunday, March 23, 2014

Jurickson Profar (shoulder) to miss 10-12 weeks

Trading Ian Kinsler to the Tigers for first baseman Prince Fielder in the offseason opened up door for Jurickson Profar to become the Rangers' everyday second baseman.

Unfortunately, someone other than Profar will be manning second base for the Rangers for the first few months of the season.

According to Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, Profar will be sidelined for 10 to 12 weeks with a torn muscle in his shoulder although the injury won't require surgery.

Per T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com, Josh Wilson is the leading candidate to replace him, although they will consider other options, such as Adam Rosales, Brent Lillibridge and Kensuke Tanaka (both of whom can be recalled from the minors) and top prospect Rougned Odor.

Turning 21 years old in February, Profar was Baseball America's top prospect after the 2012 season. This spring, Profar was hitting .222 with two homers and 11 runs batted in.

Max Scherzer rejects "substantial, long-term" offer from Tigers

Detroit Tigers starter Max Scherzer rejected a "substantial, long-term contract offer" from the team, according to team's Twitter feed.

In addition, the Tigers official statement indicates there will be "no further in-season negotiations" with Scherzer, who is due to become a free agent after the 2014 season.

Last year, Scherzer won the A.L. Cy Young award with a 21-3 record, 2.90 ERA and 240 strikeouts in 214.1 innings. Scherzer led the league in wins and WHIP (0.970) and finished second in K/9 (10.078) behind Yu Darvish (11.890) after leading the league in 2012 with an 11.1 K/9 rate.

Scherzer is my SP7 in my 2014 fantasy baseball starting pitcher rankings.