Jake Burger only has 19 plate appearances to his name, yet he owns sole possession of second place on the White Sox's home run leaderboard.
That's as good for Burger as it's bad for the White Sox, because he's already hit three of them ... or only hit three of them, depending on whose perspective you're using. The latest blast was a game-tying two-run shot off Kyle Gibson in the sixth on Saturday, and he also added a single that set up Oscar Colás' walk-off single off Logan Gillaspie. Both are righties, and if there's anything to this development, it would sure help the Sox an awful lot.
The day before highlighted the weakness of the established status quo. Pedro Grifol pinch-hit Burger with Gavin Sheets against a righty reliever, which made sense on the standard platoon level. Burger hasn't been able to figure out righties during his ups and downs of the last couple seasons, and Sheets ended up drawing a walk.
But it handcuffed Grifol's flexibility afterward, because he had to use Hanser Alberto to cover third base, and that became a handicap when Alberto had to hit for himself with the White Sox trailing by three.
The urge to sit Burger whenever possible against righties is understandable, because he hit just .224./271/.392 against them in 2022, with 40 strikeouts against just five walks over 134 plate appearances. He's added four more strikeouts and zero walks to those totals over his first 12 PAs against righties this year, so the vulnerabilities remain.
Fortunately for Burger, everybody else is somehow less playable at the moment, especially with Alberto making some messes at third base in the early going. It's worth exploring whether Burger has made any gains against righties while Yoán Moncada's out. His case is similar to that for Lenyn Sosa playing everyday during Tim Anderson's absence -- give him the reps, because even if he's not good now, he'll probably be needed later. Moncada isn't a sure bet to remain in the lineup, and the state of Eloy Jiménez doesn't inspire a whole lot of confidence, either:
[Playing the outfield] won’t happen until his legs are deemed strong enough, and Grifol said the lack of a minor-league rehab assignment enabled him to return as a designated hitter to fortify a mercurial offense.
“We’ve got to ramp him up, and then we’ll see where we’re at,” Grifol said. “Right now, he helps in the batter’s box, and we’ll see how things play out as we go.”
Burger's development has been so stunted by his own injuries that you can't quite consider him a finished product. He says he's "starting to feel a lot better against righties," and while that might be the small sample talking, there's zero downside in exploring it.
The injuries to Jiménez, Moncada, Anderson and even Joe Kelly have given the season a 2022 feel, even if Rick Hahn wanted to reject the premise.
Tim Anderson and Joe Kelly were healing well from their recent injuries, Hahn said, noting this was not a rerun of last season, as some fans already fear.
“You guys always hear from the most negative fans,” he said. “The fans I talk to never come up to me and say, ‘Rick, this is the start of just the same stuff as last year.’
“They seem to seek you guys out in the comments sections. Imagine that.”
Getting mad at Hahn sometimes feels as pointless as getting mad at Skip Bayless, because both will continue to get paid no matter how wrong they are. I already said my piece about Hahn's bouts of snippiness back in 2021, and because the White Sox never really change, things written years ago maintain their new post smell.
I mostly bring it up because while the injuries to Jiménez, Moncada and Anderson put 2022's traumas front and center, the presences of Burger and Sosa can remind everybody of what saved the season the year before. The White Sox stitched together hot streaks from Yermín Mercedes to Jake Lamb to Brian Goodwin to Adam Engel to Burger to Sheets to buoy DH and an outfield spot during Jiménez's monthslong stay on the IL.
The Central is a far tougher in 2023 than 2021, but that only adds to the urgency in embracing all potential solutions. Grifol says he likes to look at the season in increments of seven to 10 days, and the roster should be evaluated with similar regularity. Burger and Sosa are the best nine-inning options at third and second despite their shortcomings. Their roles should expand accordingly while Moncada and Anderson are away, because even if they look like a worse option in short order, the reps now may be useful experience if they end up being the best of what's left months from now.
