Jurickson Profar makes first step in return to the Bigs.

Jurickson Profar has returned to organized baseball. Last night he played his first rehab game with the Hickory Crawdads and joined his younger brother Juremi who is playing third base for the Rangers’ Full A affiliate.

Jurickson will play with the team in the coming weeks as DH to get in a flow again and to get used to playing games again.

Jurickson joined the Crawdads after two years dealing with a nagging injury. For a long time he tried to avoid surgery to the shoulder of his throwing arm but several times he was hit by a setback. Eventually the decision was made to have a surgical repair which happened on February 23 of this year.

So far, the highly touted shortstop never had the chance to play a full season in the Majors. He played parts of the 2012 and 2013 seasons with the team from Arlington TX; a total of 94 games.

Jurickson had a modest start in the 10-7 loss vs the Charleston RiverDogs (Yankees affiliate). In four at bats Jurickson got one single in the bottom of the seventh. After this single he was replaced by pinch runner Eduard Pinto.

Jurickson’s brother Juremi showed solidarity at bat as he got one hit out of four at bats as well. Juremi also played first base instead of his familiar third base.

Back in 2011 Jurickson was honered with the MVP trophy of the South Atlantic League. He also was selected for the All Star Futures game.