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Jake Burger

Marlins To Acquire Jake Burger

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The Marlins and White Sox have agreed to a deal sending infielder Jake Burger from Chicago to Miami in exchange for left-handed pitching prospect Jake Eder, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald (Twitter links).

It’s a surprise deal given that the White Sox’ focus has generally been on trading short-term assets during their summer sell-off. Burger, 27, will be controllable for another five years beyond the current season and is batting .214/.279/.527. He’s already slugged a whopping 25 home runs on the season but also has the fifth-worst on-base percentage and sixth-highest strikeout rate (31.6%) of any player in the Majors (min. 300 plate appearances). The Marlins, with MLB’s third-fewest home runs (96 total), seemingly view those as acceptable trade-offs to add some pop to lineup that’s heavily reliant on stringing hits together.

Where Burger will line up on the diamond remains to be seen. He’s played primarily third base in his young big league career but drawn poor ratings there (-8 Defensive Runs Saved, -8 Outs Above Average, -3.6 Ultimate Zone Rating). Miami has been using the struggling Jean Segura at the hot corner and could certainly supplant him with Burger’s power bat, but Burger also has experience at second base and first base. The Fish currently have Garrett Cooper taking the bulk of the reps at first, but he’s in his final season of club control and has been a trade candidate at each of the past couple deadlines.

Whether Burger immediately begins to step into a more prominent role at first base or splits his time between the infield corners and designated hitter, he’ll give the Marlins an immediate jolt of power. Looking beyond the 2023 season, both the first base and designated hitter slots in the lineup figure to be vacant; Cooper is a free agent, and while Jorge Soler is technically signed through 2024, he can also opt out of the final one year and $9MM of his contract at the end of the current season.

Subtracting Burger from the White Sox’ long-term outlook obviously takes away a good bit of power potential, but if the club isn’t sold on his defensive acumen at third base then he becomes a tough fit. Chicago has Andrew Vaughn and Eloy Jimenez locked in as long-term options at first base and designated hitter, respectively, so it could prove difficult to find Burger regular at-bats if his glove is indeed a prominent concern.

It’s also possible that the Sox simply felt Eder too talented a prospect to pass up on when presented the opportunity to acquire him. The 2020 fourth-round pick had pitched his way into top-100 prospect status prior to undergoing Tommy John surgery and has already made his way to the Double-A level this year upon returning. Eder, a Vanderbilt product, posted a 1.17 ERA in 71 1/3 innings in his first pro season before going under the knife, and he’s returned with 39 1/3 innings of 4.12 ERA ball. FanGraphs has already plugged him right back into their top-100 list, ranking him as the Marlins’ No. 1 prospect and the No. 54 prospect in baseball.

Scouting reports on Eder tout his mid-90s heater and a slider that FanGraphs touts as “one of the nastiest pitches on the planet.” Eder also has a changeup that’s well behind his header and breaking ball, but both BA and FanGraphs agree it can be an average pitch with further refinement. There are certainly some concerns for any young pitcher coming off major arm surgery, and Eder’s 12.5% walk rate will need to be refined. However, he’s already pitching in Double-A, and it’s feasible that he could be an option for the ChiSox as soon as next season. He might be on something of a limited workload next year, depending on how high his innings total climbs this year, but he’ll immediately become the system’s top pitching prospect.

White Sox Designate Hanser Alberto For Assignment

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The White Sox announced a series of roster moves today, reinstating right-hander Mike Clevinger and infielder Elvis Andrus from the injured list. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Jesse Scholtens and designated infielder Hanser Alberto for assignment.

The White Sox haven’t had a good solution for second base for most of the year. Andrus was signed with the idea of slotting him next to Tim Anderson but Anderson ended up missing most of April due to a knee sprain. Andrus slid over to short to cover for him but hit just .201/.280/.254 before going on the IL himself due to an oblique strain about three weeks ago.

With Andrus out of action of late, the club has tried a couple of different players. Jake Burger had been playing third base, covering for the injured Yoán Moncada, and hit well enough that the club has considered moving him over to second base now that Moncada is back. He has 11 home runs in 40 games this year and an overall batting line of .270/.314/.603, leading to a 145 wRC+. Given that output, it’s unsurprising that the club wants his bat in the lineup, but he’s still only been entrusted with two innings at the keystone so far this year. Another option is Romy González, who had a terrible start to the season but has been on fire lately. He had a dismal .103/.103/.103 line through April 25 but has hit .286/.295/.667 since that time.

Manager Pedro Grifol recently spoke to James Fegan of The Athletic about the situation, essentially saying that the club will try to ride the hot hand. “I don’t think I’m going to be mixing and matching at second base,” Grifol said. “We need to win baseball games so if somebody’s playing as well as Romy (Gonzalez) is playing, then he’s going to play. If Elvis comes in and he does what he can do, then he’s going to play. Those are conversations that I’ll have with whoever’s involved and we’re going to put the best team on the field that’s going to help us win a baseball game every day.”

With the club suddenly juggling multiple options for the second base position, it has squeezed Alberto out of the picture. Signed to a minor league deal in the offseason, he made the club’s Opening Day roster to serve as a bench piece. He has since played in 30 games for the club, around a two-week IL stint due to a quad strain, but has hit just .220/.261/.390. That’s not too far off from his career line of .269/.292/.381, but it seems the Sox will roll with the younger and more exciting players in Burger and González.

The Sox will now have a week to trade Alberto or pass him through waivers. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and retain his $2.3MM salary. Given that financial commitment and his tepid production this season, it seems likely he simply ends up released in the coming days.

White Sox Giving Jake Burger Reps At Second Base

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The White Sox will soon welcome Eloy Jimenez back to the lineup, which would potentially cut into the number of designated hitter at-bats available to breakout slugger Jake Burger. With Yoan Moncada holding down third base (Burger’s natural position) and Jimenez taking many DH at-bats in addition to some work in right field, the White Sox are getting Burger some reps at second base, manager Pedro Grifol tells Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times.

The experiment is “past the exploratory stage,” per Grifol — a strong indication that Burger will indeed slot into the lineup at second base at least occasionally. Logging work in the outfield is not under consideration at this time due to Burger’s history of Achilles injuries, but he’ll be mixed in at third base, second base, first base and designated hitter.

The White Sox’ desire to keep his bat in the lineup is understandable. Despite fanning in an untenable 32.4% of his plate appearances, Burger holds a robust .257/.315/.634 batting line thanks to a hefty 10 home runs in 111 trips to the plate.  Burger has seen a massive 31.3% of his fly-balls clear the fence for a home run. While it’s unlikely he can sustain quite that level of power output — Aaron Judge had a 35.6% homer-to-flyball rate in 2022 and was the only hitter in baseball to even top 26% — there’s plenty of legitimacy to Burger’s power surge. Statcast ranks him in the 85th percentile of MLB hitters in terms of average exit velocity, and he’s in the 93rd percentile for hard-hit balls and the 99th percentile for barreled balls.

Beyond a pure desire to keep Burger in the lineup, the Sox are surely motivated by the catastrophic production they’ve received from the second base position so far in 2023. Elvis Andrus, Hanser Alberto, Romy Gonzalez and Lenyn Sosa have combined to take all of the team’s at-bats at second base this season. That group has combined for an unthinkably bad .144/.188/.207 while playing the position. Chicago second basemen have posted an astonishing single-digit wRC+ of 5 — indicating that they’ve been 95% worse than an average hitter when weighting for home park and league run-scoring environment.

Second base has been a black hole in the White Sox’ lineup all season, and while Burger likely won’t be an average defender at the position — he’s considered well below average at third base — the Sox are content to trade off some defensive shortcomings to bolster their run production. That’s been a familiar refrain for the Sox in recent seasons, as they’ve regularly trotted out poor defensive alignments — e.g. Andrew Vaughn and Gavin Sheets in the outfield — in the name of improving the offense. Of course, that approach was one of many reasons the Sox fell shy of expectations in 2022; last year’s White Sox ranked 24th in MLB with -17 Outs Above Average, 27th in Defensive Runs Saved (-35) and dead last in Ultimate Zone Rating (-40.5). Only the rebuilding Pirates and Nationals made more errors.

The organization’s hope heading into the season was for a more well-rounded, better defensive product on the field. The Sox let Jose Abreu walk in free agency, thus clearing the way for Vaughn to return to first base after he’d rated as one of the game’s worst outfielders. Andrew Benintendi was signed to shore up left field. Andrus, long a well-regarded defender at shortstop, was brought back to handle second base. Top prospect Oscar Colas isn’t seen as an elite defender but was expected to be an upgrade over the Sheets/Vaughn/Jimenez carousel in right field and was given the Opening Day nod at the position.

As it stands, however, the Sox are only a marginally improved defensive club. They’re still in the bottom third of the league in DRS, UZR and OAA. Andrus hasn’t hit a lick but has played a sound second base, so swapping him out for Burger would weaken one of the few solid spots around the field in order to help beef up a lineup that ranks 20th in runs scored, 20th in home runs, 19th in batting average, 27th in on-base percentage and 20th in slugging percentage.

Jimenez’s return and continued at-bats for Burger figure to boost some of those offensive rankings. But the White Sox, who ranked as one of the game’s best defensive teams as recently as 2020, are trending toward a third straight season on the opposite end of that spectrum.

AL Central Notes: McKenzie, White Sox, Kowar

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Guardians right-hander Triston McKenzie is headed out on a rehab assignment this Saturday, tweets MLB.com’s Mandy Bell. He’s slated to throw three innings and throw up to 50 pitches in what’ll likely be the first of multiple rehab outings. Cleveland has been without the 25-year-old righty all season due to a teres major strain, and the Guards have felt the absence acutely. Cleveland starters, regularly among the best in baseball, instead rank 15th in MLB with a 4.32 ERA this season. They’ve gotten strong results from several young hurlers Tanner Bibee and Logan T. Allen, but righties Hunter Gaddis, Zach Plesac and (to a lesser extent) Peyton Battenfield have all had their struggles.

McKenzie was Cleveland’s second-best starter in 2022, trailing only ace Shane Bieber in innings pitched (191 1/3) and ERA (2.96) while leading Cleveland starters with a 25.9% strikeout rate. If all goes well on McKenzie’s rehab stint, he’ll likely step back into the rotation alongside Bieber, Bibee, Allen and Cal Quantrill. McKenzie is currently on the 60-day injured list, so Cleveland will have to make a 40-man roster move before long in order to reinstate him.

A few more notes from the AL Central…

  • White Sox slugger Eloy Jimenez is hoping to return by next weekend, writes James Fegan of The Athletic. Jimenez told Sox beat writers that on the morning he had his appendix removed, he woke up vomiting and unable to see straight or stand. “I really thought I was going to die,” Jimenez said of that unsettling experience, but the 26-year-old pledged to be back in the lineup soon. Manager Pedro Grifol discussed the ways in which he’ll work each of Jimenez, Jake Burger and third baseman Yoan Moncada into the lineup, noting that playing Moncada or Burger at second base isn’t a consideration. The Sox will likely give Jimenez some time in right field, ostensibly at the expense of Gavin Sheets, and Grifol indicated that the hot-hitting Burger could also see some time at first base. In 106 plate appearances this season, Jimenez has batted .258/.321/.423, though he was on a 14-for-33 hot streak at the time of his placement on the injured list.
  • Former top pitching prospect Jackson Kowar is back with the Royals but will move to the bullpen on a long-term basis, writes Jaylon Thompson of the Kansas City Star. Kowar, the No. 33 overall selection in the 2018 draft, was one of several college pitchers around whom the Royals hoped to center their latest rebuilding efforts. It hasn’t gone to plan — either with Kowar specifically or with the rebuild as a whole — as he’s been tattooed for a 10.76 ERA in 46 big league innings. The former Florida Gator standout and top-100 prospect worked near-exclusively as a starter in the minors prior to this season but has made 12 of his 13 appearances in relief in 2023. The transition hasn’t been a smooth one, evidenced by the 26-year-old’s 7.00 ERA and 22-to-15 K/BB ratio in 18 relief innings in Triple-A Omaha, but the team believes enough in the raw stuff to give Kowar a look at the big league level. Manager Matt Quatraro tells Thompson the Royals see Kowar as “someone we can count on going forward.”

White Sox Activate Jake Burger, Option Carlos Perez

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According to The Athletic’s James Fegan, the White Sox activated infielder Jake Burger from the 10-day injured list today, and optioned catcher Carlos Perez to Triple-A in a corresponding move.

Burger’s return creates something of a logjam in Chicago’s infield, as the 27-year-old slugger has gotten off to a torrid start in 2023, slashing .224/.312/.612 in 23 games prior to landing on the injured list. While normally a whopping 146 wRC+ would assure any player regular playing time on a struggling club such as the White Sox, Yoan Moncada has been equally stellar so far this season with a .319/.333/.574 slash line that’s been good for a 147 wRC+.

Both Burger and Moncada are primarily third basemen by trade, though Fegan notes that manager Pedro Grifol has indicated that the third base job is Moncada’s. While both players have some experience at second base, where Hanser Alberto is currently playing while regular starter Elvis Andrus is on the injured list, Grifol notes that neither Moncada nor Burger is expected to play second base. Rather, Grifol suggests that Burger will get most of his at-bats as a DH, filling in for Eloy Jimenez while he recovers from his recent appendectomy. Beyond that, Burger will fill in at third on Moncada’s off days and also spend some time at first, where Andrew Vaughn is the primary starter.

Heading out to make room for Burger is Perez, who appeared in just three games for the White Sox to back up Seby Zavala while veteran backstop Yasmani Grandal dealt with a back injury that limited his ability to play. With Grandal seemingly ready to return to action, Perez will return to Triple-A and continue to serve as upper-level catching depth going forward.

White Sox Place Jake Burger On Injured List

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The White Sox announced that third baseman Jake Burger has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a strained left oblique, which he sustained during his fourth-inning plate appearance in last night’s game. Fellow infielder Lenyn Sosa has been recalled from Triple-A Charlotte in his place.

Burger, 27, leads the White Sox with seven home runs and is hitting .224/.312/.612 overall in 77 trips to the plate. He’s walked at a solid 9.1% clip but has also punched out in 31.2% of his plate appearances so far. That early power display and a back injury to Yoan Moncada opened the door for Burger to see regular plate appearances over the past few weeks, but he’ll now join Moncada on the injured list.

The White Sox didn’t provide a specific timetable for Burger’s return, but even Grade 1 oblique strains can sideline players for upwards of a month. With both Burger and Moncada out, the White Sox’ options at third base are veteran Hanser Alberto, who’s had his share of defensive struggles at the hot corner this year, and the newly recalled Sosa. While Sosa has primarily played middle infield in his professional career, he does have 33 games of professional experience at third base and even logged a couple innings there for the Sox earlier this season. Alberto is getting the nod at third base today, with Sosa at second base and Elvis Andrus at shortstop, giving Tim Anderson a day off.

Sosa, 23, appeared in 16 games for the White Sox already this season but batted just .151/.167/.245 in 54 plate appearances. It’s been a completely different story in Triple-A, where in 11 games and 44 trips to the plate he’s posted a dominant .459/.545/.784 slash with two homers, two doubles and more walks (seven) than strikeouts (five). He obviously can’t carry over that level of production to the big leagues, but the Sox would surely be pleased with a mere middle ground between his tepid MLB production and torrid Triple-A output.

White Sox Notes: Moncada, Sheets, Burger

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The White Sox recently placed third baseman Yoán Moncada on the 10-day injured list due to back soreness, and it seemed like maybe he would be able to quickly return. He had already missed a few games as the club was deciding whether or not to send him to the IL, suggesting it was a fairly borderline case. With the ability to backdate an IL move by three days, it seemed reasonable to expect him to return after a week of rest, but manager Pedro Grifol tells reporters, including Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times, that Moncada will likely be sent on a rehab assignment.

“He’s getting better, but there’s a process to this thing,” Grifol said. “Now he’s missed significant time to where there’s going to be some added stuff to his progression and his return.” He also says that “Third base is a reactionary position; there’s some diving involved; there’s a lot of movement” and that “there’s a good possibility that he will [go on a rehab assignment].”

Injuries have become a bit of a running theme for Moncada over the past couple of years. He made multiple trips to the IL last year due to a right oblique strain, a right hamstring strain and then a left hamstring strain. He was limited to 104 games on the year and a paltry .212/.273/.353 batting line when healthy enough to take the field. He launched out of the gates here in 2023 by hitting .308/.325/.564 in the early going but that progress has now been stalled by these back issues and his return might now be kicked a little further down the road than initially expected.

The IL stints of Moncada, Eloy Jiménez, Tim Anderson and Hanser Alberto have opened up opportunities for other players on the roster, such as Jake Burger and Gavin Sheets. James Fegan of The Athletic recently profiled the pair, who have become close such close friends that they’ve started referring to themselves collectively as “Shurger,” even joking about selling split jerseys or T-shirts.

Both players have made the most of their recent opportunities with offensive outbursts. Burger has smacked five home runs already in just 11 games, currently sporting a video game batting line of .276/.353/.862 and a 219 wRC+. Sheets’ line isn’t quite as gaudy but it’s still an impressive .310/.429/.414 for a 149 wRC+. However, like many White Sox players of recent years, the offensive potency has come with defensive questions, with Fegan highlighting an error made by Burger against the Orioles and a misplay made by Sheets against the Twins recently.

This was also an issue for the White Sox last year, as first baseman Andrew Vaughn was pushed to an outfield corner, with his poor defensive work out there undoing a lot of what he provided at the plate. The club let José Abreu walk in free agency in order to put Vaughn back at first, but they still have Jiménez as the designated hitter most days, meaning anyone else in the lineup needs to play the field on a regular basis somewhere. “I think he wears more of it because there were some guys out of position last year, and the team wore it, right?” Grifol said to Fegan about Sheets playing the outfield. “And the organization wore it. And maybe that’s what’s a part of it. I don’t know, I don’t know what people think. I know what we evaluate and what we see, and the work we see being done. And it doesn’t mean he’s going to go out there and have a great defensive game. He might not. He might make an error, he might make two. It doesn’t change the fact that we have confidence in him playing the outfield. If we didn’t, he wouldn’t be playing out there.”

Sheets has a career tally of -8 Defensive Runs Saved and -7 Outs Above Average in the outfield, along with a -7.0 from Ultimate Zone Rating. But with his hot bat, it seems like the club will keep trying to run him out there on occasion, though he’s clearly fourth on the outfield chart behind Luis Robert Jr., Andrew Benintendi and Óscar Colás. Burger’s been taking the hot corner while Moncada is out of action, where his career numbers are -6 DRS, -6 OAA and -2.1 UZR. Getting Moncada back would surely be an upgrade in this department, as he has career figures of +1 DRS, +8 OAA and 15.8 UZR at the hot corner. Burger’s bat should keep him in the lineup regardless, but he won’t be able to maintain a 55.6% HR/FB rate all year long.

Coming into the season, many viewed the White Sox’ roster as one that had plenty of top level talent but shaky depth that could be exposed by a few key injuries. The season is still in its early stages but the club hasn’t done much to shake that reputation. They’ve seen multiple lineup regulars and key relievers hit the injured list, leading to a 7-12 start that they will hope to climb out of in the weeks to come.

White Sox Place Eloy Jiménez On IL With Hamstring Strain

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The White Sox announced that outfielder Eloy Jiménez has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 4, with a “low-grade” left hamstring strain. Infielder Jake Burger was recalled in a corresponding move. Jiménez is expected to miss about two to three weeks, per James Fegan of The Athletic.

Jiménez, 26, is one of baseball’s most potent sluggers when healthy. Last year, he hit .295/.358/.500 for a wRC+ of 144, indicating he was 44% better than the league average hitter. That latter number ranked him in the top 15 spots on the major league leaderboard, among hitters with at least 300 plate appearances.

Unfortunately, the “when healthy” qualifier is doing a lot of work in that previous paragraph. Jiménez also dealt with a hamstring strain last year, in his right leg, one that cost him over two months of the season. In 2021, a ruptured left pectoral tendon kept him out of action for more than three months. Due to those injuries and the 2020 season being shortened by the pandemic, he’s only played 199 games since the end of the 2019 season.

In this instance, it doesn’t sound as though Jiménez is facing a significant absence, though it’s yet another frustrating hurdle for a guy who has had a lot of them lately. It’s also a notable development for the club, as they are considered by many observers to have a strong top layer of talent but weak depth that could be exposed by injuries over the course of the season. That’s not to say that this injury alone is some kind of death knell for their season, but it’s possible this will be part of an ongoing area of concern in the months to come.

Jiménez is capable of playing the outfield but has been limited to the designated hitter role so far this year. This IL placement will open up that lineup slot for manager Pedro Grifol to rotate some different players through.

White Sox Place Yoan Moncada On Injured List

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The White Sox announced that third baseman Yoán Moncada has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 18, with a right hamstring strain. Shortstop Tim Anderson is back from the IL in a corresponding move, as manager Tony La Russa announced yesterday.

It’s the second IL stint of the season for Moncada, who lost the first month-plus of the year battling an oblique strain. He returned in early May and has appeared in 29 games, but he’s posted career-worst production in the early going. Through 113 trips to the plate, the switch-hitting Moncada owns just a .179/.230/.292 line with three home runs. He recorded only one extra-base hit between May 16 and June 13, and this season’s 5.3% walk rate is a career low.

That’s been a disappointing follow-up to one of the better campaigns of Moncada’s career. He hit .263/.375/.412 last season, offensive production that checked in 22 percentage points above league average by measure of wRC+. Moncada’s slow start is one of a handful of contributors to the team’s mediocre 31-33 record, and his efforts to snap out of that funk will be put on hold by another injury.

Jake Burger steps into the lineup at the hot corner for this evening’s contest with the Blue Jays. That’ll presumably be a regular role for the former first-round pick, who owns a .257/.308/.472 line through 157 plate appearances. Burger has collected eight homers and seven doubles to make a strong impact from a power perspective, but he’s punched out in 31.2% of his trips to the plate while posting a modest 5.7% walk rate.

AL Notes: Blue Jays, White Sox

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The Blue Jays have sent southpaw Tayler Saucedo to the 10-day injured list with right hip discomfort. Taking his roster spot, Bowden Francis has been brought back to the active roster, per Keegan Matheson of MLB.com (via Twitter). Francis was only just optioned to Triple-A yesterday. Saucedo was roughed up in 2 2/3 innings of work, yielding four earned runs and six hits, including three home runs.

  • The Blue Jays have a couple of key players that might be coming back soon. Teoscar Hernandez and Hyun Jin Ryu have both returned to baseball activities and could be gearing up for a rehab assignment, per The Athletic’s Kaitlyn McGrath. Ross Stripling has held the line in Ryu’s stead, but the offense could use a jolt of Hernandez’s trademark power.
  • Yoan Moncada is beginning his rehab assignment today, per the lineup card posted by the Charlotte Knights’ Twitter account. An oblique strain has kept Moncada out of the lineup for the entirety of the season thus far. 26-year-old  Jake Burger has been starting games at third in his stead, slashing .260/.275/.420, good for a 105 wRC+ despite walking at just a 1.9% clip.
  • X-rays on Andrew Vaughn’s hand came back negative. He was hit on the hand with a pitch in yesterday’s game. He’s day-to-day for now, per The Athletic’s James Fegan (via Twitter). Vaughn has gotten off to a hot start at the plate, slashing .283/.367/.566 across 60 plate appearances.
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