Forcing the Issue

Whether or not he knew it (and I bet he did), Jake Burger entered spring training a dead man walking. Injury, circumstance and time have rendered the White Sox first-round draft pick in 2017 a player without a position. Burger would be entitled to wonder why the Sox drafted him in the first place, since they already had Yoan Moncada at third base and Jose Abreu at first, but the soon-to-be twenty-seven year old has never complained, not about that or the three years lost to injury and the COVID pandemic. That’s the thing about Burger, he keeps plowing through adversity. Finally, he got a chance last season due to other people getting hurt and responded with eight homeruns and twenty-six RBIs in just 168 at-bats. We’re talking thirty-plus homer power here. But where do you put it? Not at third, where Moncada reigns (and twenty-one year old Bryan Ramos looks ready to take away), or first, which now belongs to Andrew Vaughn with Abreu gone to Houston. And not the outfield, with Andrew Benintendi signed to play left and rookie Oscar Colas looking like he’ll be starting in right. And not DH, where Eloy Jimenez is slotted, despite his protests about playing left or right. And how has Burger responded to a flow chart that has no place for him to go? By hitting four homers already this spring. No one on the Sox has more, not that you’d know from reading today’s story on the team website, which was all about Colas hitting his first. As much as it pains me to say, Burger would be a perfect fit on the North Side, where the Cubs are trying to pass off Nick Madrigal as a major-league third baseman. The Cubs have plenty of pitching while the Sox have Jake Diekman, which isn’t quite the same. GM Rick Hahn should do right by Burger and find a deal that works for both teams.