The White Sox announced Friday that they’ve claimed righty Emilio Vargas off waivers from the D-backs and selected the contracts of infielder Jake Burger, right-hander Tyler Johnson and infielder Gavin Sheets. The moves leave the ChiSox with a full 40-man roster.
Vargas, 24, wasn’t included in the D-backs’ player pool in 2020. His 2019 season was spent primarily at the Double-A level, where he worked to a 3.78 ERA and 4.20 FIP with 7.4 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, 1.05 HR/9 and a 42.6 percent grounder rate in 85 2/3 innings (17 starts). He wasn’t considered to be among the Diamondbacks’ 30 best prospects at MLB.com or FanGraphs, but he’ll give the club some rotation depth at the upper levels of the system — that is, of course, assuming he makes it through the offseason on their roster, which isn’t a given.
Burger, 24, was the 11th overall pick in 2017 and has had his career to date decimated by a series of left leg/foot injuries. Burger has twice torn the Achilles tendon in his left leg, and upon returning from that issue in 2019, a heel injury wiped out his entire season. He hasn’t suited up for a game since way back in 2017, the same year he was drafted, but the third baseman was a prolific college hitter who turned in a .263/.336/.412 slash with Class-A Kannapolis after being drafted.
Both Johnson and Sheets are considered to be among the White Sox top 20 or so prospects. Johnson posted a 2.59 ERA and punched out 43 hitters in 31 1/3 innings of minor league relief work in 2019. Sheets was a second-round first baseman out of Wake Forest in 2017 who posted a .267/.345/.414 slash in an extremely pitcher-friendly Double-A setting in 2019 (122 wRC+).
Burger is obvious, Sheets and Johnson are fair choices. Hope at least one of them can become a regular at the big league level.
I don’t think Burger was obvious. Is there really a big risk that another team is going to commit to keeping him on their big league roster for all of 2021 when he hasn’t played any games since 2017?
If Burger could lay off the burgers, he’d have a better chance of staying healthy. I’ve yet to have seen a picture of him looking like he was capable of bending over for a ground ball.
@Dogbone
If Burger laid off the burgers, you would be out of a job.
On second thought, your McDonald’s would just put you in charge of salting the fries.
Remember that one offseason when Kyle Schwarber got “in shape” and still sucked?
There is no room on the Sox for any of them in near future anyway.
Maybe trade bait value only.
The White Sox wound up protecting the 3 highest ranking players from their top 30-man prospect list who would have been eligible for the Rule 5 Draft on December 10th:
+ 10) Gavin Sheets, 1B
+ 14) Jake Burger, 3B
+ 24) Tyler Johnson, RHP
25) Lenyn Sosa, SS
28) Luis Mieses, OF
29) Will Kincanon, RHP
Aaron, that’s quite an impressive group. Lol.
There was a short period of time where Dogbone appeared to be trying to engage without quite as obvious troll action. Good to have you back my friend!
Dogbone: Here are the 3 prospects your Cubs chose to protect, undoubtedly a more “impressive group”:
+ 11) Christopher Morel, 3B
+ 12) Cory Abbott, RHP
+ 26) Keegan Thompson, RHP
30) Brendon Little, LHP
Even with 3 spaces still available on their 40-man roster, the Cubs decided to not protect 2017 first round pick Brendon Little.
@Aaron Sapoznik
Nicely done. That should shut Dogbone up for a while.
Dumpster Divin’ Rick
This makes no sense
I’m not surprised by any of the three system guys they added to the 40-man roster. Johnson may be able to help the Sox at some point in 2021, while the other two appear to be blocked for the next couple years at least (Sheets at 1B/DH by Jose Abreu, Andrew Vaughn and possibly Zack Collins/Yermin Mercedes; Burger by Yoan Moncada at 3B and DH by Abreu, Vaughn, etc.).
Because of this, I can envision Burger and/or Sheets being traded before or during the season (provided they’re doing well) to help the team in next year’s playoff push.
The team likely will non-tender Mazara and Rodon ( and possibly Lopez) to free up some roster for a couple free agents; if the team signs more free agents than they non-tender, however, the Sox will likely remove someone like Vargas, Jose Ruiz, and/or Seby Zavala off the 40-man to make room.
Sorry, but Burger has yet to show that he even cares enough to get in shape, let alone play in the majors. That said, where would he play? 3rd? 1st? Can he really hit? Moving on….
For those interested enough to read a more accurate version of Jake Burger’s ordeal feel free to check out this article: mlb.com/whitesox/news/jake-burger-on-white-sox-40-…
I hope the guy can make it, truly has been through a lot. Will be rough going without having played since 2017 basically… that’s a long, long layoff. I think anything they got out of him would be an incredible bonus. Once you have a serious injury like that, your body is never the same and you develop compensation patterns in other parts of your body. Klay Thompson experiencing that sort of thing now. Wishing Jake the best.
I don’t think he has any trade value at all though, because teams know the history and would not give up much of anything for a guy with low success and high injury probability.
There has been a lot written about Jake Burger’s multiple rehabs and his most recent time spent actually playing baseball. Despite no minor league appearances since his first professional season after being drafted in June of 2017, Burger impressed at the White Sox alternate site in Schaumburg this past summer. His work in the subsequent Arizona Fall Instructional League was also lauded with many of his teammates saying he was the best player on the field and at the plate.
Burger came with a similar hitting resume to that of more recent #1 pick Andrew Vaughn. It’s encouraging to White Sox fans that both showed well this past summer at Schaumburg. Vaughn is expected to be a prime contributor to the 2021 White Sox despite having never played above A+ Winston-Salem. Burger is expected to begin next season at AA Birmingham despite no minor league PA’s since September of 2017. Burger will have a chance to impress the coaching staff this spring in Glendale, Arizona. Nobody will be surprised if he finishes at up at AAA Charlotte which should give him a shot at a MLB active roster spot in 2022.
We’ll see. I mean knowing what the guy has been through, of course people are going to be prone to say positive things, as opposed to something more critical or realistic. Everybody will be rooting for the guy so I hope your optimism is validated.
Anyway will be the least of the Sox problems if he does not do anything significant, but would be a huge bonus if he makes a big comeback. He has to stay healthy for the next couple of years in order for that to even be a possibility.
Vargas looked like a decent pick up to me for whatever that’s worth.
That is such a terrible take it’s not even funny. The guy has been busting his a** for years to get back from serious injuries, and you want to rip on his work ethic? Ridiculously dumb.
It would always be cool to add a big impact guy like Ozuna or Bauer, but I don’t think the White Sox need to feel too pressured in that direction.
For similar money. . .
1. Re-sign Alex Colome
2. Trade for Lance Lynn
3. Sign Michael Brantley and Joc Pederson
– Giolito, Keuchel, Lynn, Cease, Kopech is a nice rotation
– Brantley and Pederson balance out a RH-heavy lineup. Plus, Anderson and Brantley getting on-base ahead of the big hitters seems like a nice fit.