ATLANTA -- Jurickson Profar¡¯s earliest baseball fandom was aided by fellow Curacao native Andruw Jones¡¯ rise to greatness. He will now get his own opportunity to serve as a Braves outfielder.

The Braves filled one of their most significant needs on Thursday when they signed Profar to a three-year, $42 million deal. He will receive $12 million this year and then draw a $15 million salary both of the next two years.

"Based on last year, we had Jurickson as the second-best free-agent bat," Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos said. "We believe who he was last year is who he is going forward."

With the addition of the switch-hitting Profar, the Braves have gained a veteran who can help compensate for Ronald Acu?a Jr.¡¯s early-season absence and provide stability while likely serving as an everyday outfielder. Acu?a's timetable hasn't been set, but he could miss at least six weeks while recovering from a torn ACL in his left knee.

Profar's tremendous plate discipline also makes him a top candidate to fill the leadoff spot while Acu?a recovers.

"You love the fact that there's contact and on-base [skills] and he switch-hits," Anthopoulos said. "It's really a perfect complement and fit to our team."

The Braves can enter the season knowing Profar will be in left field and Michael Harris II will be in center. Jarred Kelenic and Bryan De La Cruz, who both have Minor League options remaining, stand as the top candidates for right field. Kelenic¡¯s struggles against left-handed pitchers could lead to a platoon with the right-handed-hitting De La Cruz. But Kelenic will have an opportunity to win an everyday role in camp. Profar fits best as a left fielder. He has played just 33 games in right and all but four of those games were in 2021.

"We're going to get [Kelenic] a lot of reps in right field [during Spring Training]," Anthopoulos said. "He's got the range and arm strength to play all three [outfield positions]. Jarred will have every opportunity to be that guy."

Profar put it all together last season, showing all the skills that once made him MLB Pipeline¡¯s No. 1 overall prospect. It just wasn¡¯t supposed to take this long.

It took until Profar¡¯s age-31 campaign -- his 11th season in the Major Leagues -- for him to seemingly break out, but he certainly proved it¡¯s never too late to shine. In his second stint with the Padres, after hardly playing in 2023, Profar posted a .280/.380/.459 slash line as San Diego¡¯s starting left fielder in ¡®24. He hit 24 homers, drove in 85 runs and stole 10 bases, earning National League All-Star honors and cementing himself as another big bat along with Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado in the Padres¡¯ lineup.

Profar's success came with his decision to make significant changes to his lower half. He added a leg kick, opened his stance and saw his average exit velocity jump from 86.5 mph in 2023 to 91.1 mph last season. Anthopoulos is hopeful these changes will prove as beneficial as they did to Justin Turner, Jos¨¦ Bautista and Josh Donaldson.

Anthopoulos was the Blue Jays' general manager when Bautista and Donaldson made their meteoric rises.

"Profar had all the ingredients," Anthopoulos said. "I think tapping into the power was the one piece that was going to elevate his bat."

It was a stellar season largely backed up by Statcast quality-of-contact metrics, which ranked Profar above the 90th percentile in MLB in expected wOBA (.364) and expected batting average (.283). He proved to be a disciplined hitter, walking at an impressive 11.4% clip, striking out only 15.1% of the time and ranking in the 90th percentile in both chase rate and whiff rate.

Profar, who came up through the Minors as a shortstop, has now seen the most Major League action in left field, making 499 career appearances there compared to 219 at second base, 104 at short and 89 at third. He graded out as a poor defender in left in 2024 (-7 Outs Above Average), but thanks to his bat, Profar was worth 3.6 bWAR.

It was handily Profar¡¯s best offensive season, as he came into 2024 with a career .706 OPS before posting an .839 OPS with the Padres. He debuted with the Rangers in 2012 as a 19-year-old and played in 85 games the following season, but after a shoulder injury and subsequent surgery to repair a torn labrum in 2014, he missed two whole seasons and didn¡¯t return to MLB until 2016. Profar was traded to the A¡¯s after the 2018 season in a three-team deal, then dealt to the Padres a year later.

After showing a bit more prowess with the bat in 2022 (.243 BA, .723 OPS), Profar signed a one-year, $7.75 million deal with the Rockies for ¡®23. He was released by Colorado in late August and signed by San Diego to a Minor League deal before re-upping with the Padres for 2024.

"We believe in these swing changes and we believe this is who he can be going forward," Anthopoulos said. "Someone on the other side looking at the glass as half empty will say, 'Well, he's done it just one year.' That's the risk you take with these things. A lot of times we go after the upside players."