The outfield figures to be a position of strength for the Atlanta Braves as they head into the 2026 season. The signing of Mike Yastrzemski could end up being a bit of a coup, as Yaz can provide some solid production at any part of the outfield. As a matter of fact, Yaz figures to play a major role in the outfield this season. As mentioned in my article from Friday centered around Alex Anthopoulos talking to the media, the Braves figure that he’ll be starting in the outfield against right-handers. Yaz is a career .246/.336/.473, 120 wRC+ hitter against right-handers with numbers that aren’t particularly comparable against left-handers, so it makes sense that he’d be getting more of a look against right-handed pitchers.
Naturally, this means that Jurickson Profar won’t be an everyday starter in left field. He could still fill in those gaps with DH appearances, since that also appears to be part of the plans that both Alex Anhtopoulos and Walt Weiss have in store for him in 2026. Let’s check in (via this report from Braves beat writer Mark Bowman of MLB.com) and see how Profar, himself, feels about potentially being more of a DH going forward:
…He certainly doesn’t seem thrilled about the likelihood he will open this season as the Braves’ primary designated hitter.
Asked if he was familiar with the DH spot, Profar chuckled and said, “I don’t know, we’ll see.”
Profar was then asked, “DH isn’t your favorite spot?” This time, he grimaced, laughed and said, “Let’s see. Let’s see. Let’s see. I’m just here to help the team.”
Braves manager Wait Weiss understood and appreciated Profar’s response.
“To be honest, I don’t think any player is raising their hand, unless they’re a full-time DH, to say, ‘Yeah, I mean, that’s what I want to do,’” Weiss said. “He’s a great teammate. We’ve had this conversation. [Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos] even called him before he signed [outfielder Mike] Yastrzemski to clear it with him.”
The good news is that even if he doesn’t particularly seem thrilled about it, Profar is going to give this a shot and try to make sure that everything works out. He may not be excited about it but it still seems like the right move to make. Even though Profar certainly made his fair share of highlight-reel catches during his first half-season as a member of the Braves, those were the outlier plays in a season where he finished with -8 Outs Above Average as an outfielder — good for placing in just the eighth percentile of all outfielders in 2025. Profar has never graded out well as a defender so this feels like an ideal shift for Profar to make from playing in the outfield to transitioning into more of a DH.
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With that being said, you still don’t play the game on paper and while Profar seems like a great fit for the role, it won’t work if he’s not willing to help make it work. Again, there’s no tangible signs that he’s going to be anything less than professional in this regard but it still could be one of those things that could come to mind if he has a rough patch as a DH during the upcoming season.
There’s also the idea that Yaz wouldn’t be strictly replacing Profar in the outfield as well. Yastrzemski can play the entire outfield, which means he’d be available to give Michael Harris II and Ronald Acuña Jr. a break in the outfield so that they could DH as well. It’s not like this’ll be an exclusive situation for Profar and that’ll definitely be the case once Ha-Seong Kim returns and that could allow Marucio Dubón to start branching out into the outfield (center field in particular) instead of simply focusing on being the starting shortstop. There are plenty of options out there for the Braves to best utilize their squad once they’re completely healthy — even now with Kim gone, this is still a deeper team than last season.
Still, it’ll be very interesting to see how this goes with Mike Yastrzemski and Jurickson Profar going forward. The plan for Yaz to start and bat against right-handers while Profar moves to the DH seems like an ideal one in theory but we’ll have to see how it plays out on the field. What do y’all think would be the best way to go about deploying these players once the season rolls around? Let us know!
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