Miami Marlins add to offense by acquiring Jake Burger from White Sox for Jake Eder
The Miami Marlins are acquiring infielder Jake Burger from the Chicago White Sox, a source confirmed to the Miami Herald on Tuesday, in a move that will beef up their lineup as they make a push for their first postseason berth in a full season since winning the 2003 World Series.
The Marlins are sending left-handed pitcher Jake Eder, the club’s No. 4 overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline, to the White Sox in return.
The Marlins’ pursuit of an impact bat was well noted. The offense, while improved, still ranks in the bottom third of the league in runs scored, home runs and on-base-plus-slugging.
And Burger, 27, gives them a player who can add some instant power to the lineup as long as Miami can deal with the elevated swing-and-miss and strikeout rates.
Burger, who is under team control through the 2028 season, entered Tuesday hitting just .214 but with 25 home runs — a mark that ties Jorge Soler for the most on Miami’s roster — to go along with 15 doubles, 52 RBI and 44 runs scored.
Over 154 career MLB games the past three seasons (all with the White Sox), Burger has 34 home runs, 27 doubles, 81 RBI and a .791 on-base-plus-slugging mark.
But Miami will have to take the good — among the top in the league in average exit velocity, hard-hit rate and barrel rate — with the bad.
Burger has a career 31.6-percent strikeout rate. This season, he has 102 strikeouts in 323 plate appearances. He ranks among the worst in the league this season in strikeout rate (seventh percentile), swing-and-miss rate (35.4 percent, fifth percentile) and chase rate (38.9 percent, sixth percentile).
Defensively, Burger primarily plays third base but has made a few starts at both first and second base. His defensive metrics, however, are below average with minus-4 defensive runs saved this season at third base.
Burger’s addition, along with the returns of outfielders Avisail Garcia and Jazz Chisholm Jr. from the injured list, give the Marlins a more complete lineup as they make a push over the final two months of the season to secure a playoff berth.
The cost, however, is steep. Eder is one of the top pitchers in Miami’s system who has been returning to form over the past month after his return from Tommy John surgery in August 2021.
The trade comes after the Marlins first acquired a pair of relievers in righties Jorge Lopez and David Robertson to fortify their bullpen.
This story was originally published August 1, 2023 at 4:58 PM.
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