Jake Burger

White Sox Place Jake Burger On Injured List

By Steve Adams | May 4, 2023 at 11:11am CDT

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

By Darragh McDonald | April 20, 2023 at 1:00pm CDT

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

By Darragh McDonald | April 5, 2023 at 10:00am CDT

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

By Anthony Franco | June 20, 2022 at 5:50pm CDT

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

By TC Zencka | April 30, 2022 at 2:11pm CDT

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.

White Sox Promote Jake Burger, Option Yermin Mercedes

By Steve Adams | July 2, 2021 at 11:38am CDT

11:38am: The White Sox announced that they have indeed recalled Burger from Triple-A Charlotte. Chicago has also reinstated Adam Eaton from the injured list. In a pair of corresponding roster moves, they’ve optioned righty Zack Burdi and, most notably, designated hitter Yermin Mercedes.

The 28-year-old Mercedes was the talk of baseball when he started the season 8-for-8 and generally decimated big league pitching for the first six weeks of the season. Mercedes batted .368/.417/.571 through the season’s first 38 games, producing at a Herculean level even as hitters throughout the league struggled so extensively that MLB finally began to crack down on pitchers’ use of foreign substances.

In his next 31 games, however, Mercedes has seen his offensive production completely evaporate. The endpoint here, admittedly, is rather arbitrary, but Mercedes is hitting just .150/.220/.196 across his past 118 plate appearances. Understandably, the Sox have begun to cut back on his playing time, and he’s now Charlotte-bound, where the team will hope he can get a reset of sorts to round back into the form he displayed early in the 2021 campaign.

11:00am: The White Sox are calling up infield prospect Jake Burger for his big league debut today, tweets The Athletic’s James Fegan. Scott Merkin of MLB.com suggested last night (via Twitter) that Burger was likely to be with the club in Detroit this weekend, and the White Sox themselves have even tweeted a not-so-subtle indication that Burger is getting the call — though they’ve yet to make a formal announcement and reveal the corresponding roster moves.

It’s the culmination of a remarkable journey for the 2017 first-rounder, who has twice torn his Achilles tendon and endured grueling, months-long rehabilitations. Burger didn’t play in a single minor league game from 2018-19 (or in 2020, for obvious reasons). Making the jump from Class-A to Triple-A after a three-year layoff from competitive games is impressive in itself, but Burger has done far more than simply make that leap — he’s absolutely torn Triple-A pitching apart. In 185 plate appearances over 42 games, the former No. 11 overall pick has mashed at a .322/.368/.596 clip, swatting 10 homers, 15 doubles and a triple along the way.

Burger only recently turned 25, so despite the considerable injury hurdles he’s had to clear in his journey to this point, his age lines up nicely with the rest of an increasingly impressive core of young White Sox stars. He’s played primarily third base in the minor leagues, but the Sox began getting him some looks at second base when Nick Madrigal went down with a season-ending hamstring tear. For the time being, however, Burger could get a look at his primary position at the hot corner, as Yoan Moncada sustained a hand injury on a slide into third base yesterday.

Burger’s early performance could be pivotal for the White Sox. While they’re comfortably in command of the American League Central, they’ve still reportedly been discussing a trade centering around D-backs infielder Eduardo Escobar. While those talks have apparently slowed as other teams jump into the Escobar bidding, Burger’s performance could conceivably curb Chicago’s own interest.

If Burger storms out to a hot start and Moncada comes back healthy sooner than later, the Sox could just let Burger run with the second base role and forgo an infield upgrade entirely. Conversely, if Burger looks overmatched, the Sox might be more interested in pursuing a short-term upgrade at a clear position of need on a win-now club — be it Escobar or another trade candidate.

AL Central Notes: Civale, Buxton, Duran, Burger

By Steve Adams | June 21, 2021 at 10:04pm CDT

The Indians’ rotation depth has been tested already, and they could now be facing another injury. Right-hander Aaron Civale exited tonight with two outs in the fifth inning with an injury to his right middle finger. The Score’s Travis Sawchik notes, via Twitter, that the medical staff was testing the mobility of Civale’s finger as opposed to looking at a potential blister. There’s no official diagnosis, but for a Cleveland club that already has Shane Bieber (shoulder strain) and Zach Plesac (fractured hand) on the injured list, any injury scare for the club’s most proven starter is particularly noteworthy.

Cleveland has cycled through myriad young options in hopes of churning out another quality starter, as they’ve seemingly been able to do at will in recent years. However, each of Triston McKenzie, Sam Hentges, Logan Allen, Eli Morgan and Jean Carlos Mejia has an ERA north of 6.00 after multiple starts. Swingman Cal Quantrill gave the Indians a much-needed five innings of shutout ball his last time out but hasn’t had much success overall in four starts. The Indians are still nine games over .500 despite those injuries and an offense that ranks among the worst in MLB (88 wRC+), but it’ll be increasingly difficult to maintain that standing if questions about the rotation continue to mount.

More news from the division…

Twins center fielder Byron Buxton just returned from the injured list, but he exited tonight’s game against the Reds after five innings. Buxton was hit by a pitch on the left hand in his prior at-bat and played a couple innings of defense before ultimately exiting the game. Minnesota has won four straight games and can ill afford to lose Buxton if the team wants to cling to any faint hope of clawing its way back into the race. It stands to reason that the club would likely have Buxton undergo x-rays, even if his removal were deemed precautionary. They’ll presumably have an update after the game on Buxton, who is 4-for-10 with a homer and a double since returning from the IL two days ago.
The Twins have shut down top pitching prospect Jhoan Duran due to an elbow strain, president of baseball operations Derek Falvey told reporters (Twitter link via Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com). He’s undergoing imaging to determine the severity of the issue. Minnesota has been attempting to weather injury troubles for two of its top three starters (Kenta Maeda, Michael Pineda) while getting awful results from fourth and fifth starters J.A. Happ and Matt Shoemaker. The Twins’ miserable rotation performance is perhaps the primary reason for their surprisingly poor record, and an injury to Duran would rob the club of a high-profile prospect who entered the season as a candidate to make his MLB debut this summer. Duran ranked as the game’s No. 83 prospect at The Athletic and No. 86 at FanGraphs, but he’s been limited to just 16 innings this season. Duran allowed one run with a 14-to-3 K/BB ratio in his first seven innings but has since been tagged for eight runs on 11 hits and an alarming 10 walks in nine innings.
The White Sox are without Nick Madrigal for the remainder of the season, and while it appears they’re exploring the market for infield help, they’re also taking some looks at creative in-house options. Third base prospect Jake Burger is getting some work at second base in Triple-A, writes Vinnie Duber of NBC Sports Chicago. Burger, 25, is in the midst of his first season since 2017 after a pair of Achilles injuries wiped out his 2018 and 2019 campaigns. The 2017 first-rounder has left little doubt that he’s a talented hitter, batting .277/.320/.555 with eight homers, 12 doubles and a triple in 147 plate appearances in his first in-game action after a three-year layoff. The 6’2″, 230-pound Burger would be one of the larger players you’d see at second base, but manager Tony La Russa notes to Duber that with Yoan Moncada hitting so well at the hot corner, at-bats there won’t be easy to come by if Burger’s bat does force its way to the big leagues: “I think it’s really smart, and it’s smarter if you do it down there where it’s not such a microscope. … I like that they’re exposing him to second base down there.”

White Sox Claim Emilio Vargas, Add Three Others To 40-Man Roster

By Steve Adams | November 20, 2020 at 2:18pm CDT

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+).

White Sox Add Jake Burger To 60-Man Player Pool

By Connor Byrne | August 19, 2020 at 4:32pm CDT

The White Sox have added third baseman Jake Burger to their 60-man player pool, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times reports. He’ll join their alternate training site.

This is an important step for Burger, a recent first-round pick (No. 11 in 2017) whom injuries have ravaged during his professional career. Burger tore his left Achilles twice in 2018 and didn’t play at all that year. He also missed all of last season because of heel problems. Considering those serious issues, it’s encouraging that the 24-year-old is managing to work his way back yet again.

When Burger was actually healthy enough to play in the minors during his draft year, he logged a .263/.336/.412 line with five home runs in 217 plate appearances between rookie ball and Single-A. Baseball America then ranked Burger as the White Sox’s seventh-best prospect heading into 2018, making note of his impressive power and writing that “his leadership-oriented makeup is legendary.”

Quick Hits: Trade Deadline, Boras, Lynn, Smith, Padres, Burger

By Mark Polishuk | August 15, 2020 at 10:30pm CDT

There’s no doubt the 2020 trade deadline will be the most unusual in baseball history, and The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (subscription required) looks at some of the many unique aspects of the lead-up to August 31. Everything about how teams evaluate their own rosters, decide on being buyers or sellers, scout other teams’ talent, and potentially spend to acquire that talent will be in flux, plus there are some factors unique to the threat of COVID-19.

For instance, there might have to be some back-channel negotiations with trade candidates to ensure that a player wouldn’t opt out of the season rather than be dealt to an undesirable location. Just the idea of changing locations whatsoever also carries issues, as Rosenthal notes that intake testing could delay a new acquisition’s arrival to his new team by a few days (no small amount of time in a shortened season), and there is inherent risk in travel and in introducing the health x-factor of an unfamiliar player into a new clubhouse.

In regards to the latter concern, agent Scott Boras contacted Rosenthal with the following message (Twitter link): “So that deadline deals are not impacted by COVID, I am letting all owners know if any of our players are traded and asked to leave their existing teams’ protocols, we have arranged a private jet protocol to allow players to be safely transported (between clubs).”

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