It is still way too early to say the White Sox have lost the Jake Burger trade with the Miami Marlins. Jake Eder has yet to play an MLB game and the White Sox were in desperate need of left-handed pitching. But at the moment the optics look bad and the pressure on Eder is immense.
Burger was a fan favorite but was also under team control through 2026. As each day goes on there the trade is looking worse and worse. For a White Sox team that was rotting from the inside with clubhouse issues, Burger seemed like a guy that you would want around.
The White Sox struggle to hit for power and frequently get out homered at Guaranteed Rate Field. Because of this giving away one of your only power hitters is hard to justify.
The 27-year-old had 25 home runs on the South Side, 17 of which came at home. His 118.2 max exit velocity ranked in the top one percent in baseball. He also placed in the top 99th percentile in barrel percentage, 93rd in expected slugging percentage, and 91st in hard-hit percentage.
Whoever signed off on the trade was banking on the fact that Burger would regress. There are plenty of warning signs with Burger such as the low contact and walk rate. But there were some signs that he was maturing as a hitter. Before the All-Star break, he drew just 15 walks in 263 plate appearances. In his 60 at-bats after the break he had already drawn seven.
Since moving to Miami Burger has become a gravitational figure for a Marlins squad that is knocking on the door of a wild card spot.
On his first night in Miami, the organization rolled out a burger theme promotion, his teammates seem to have responded well to him and his play on the field has translated into wins. Burger is slashing .311/.380/.467 since the trade and recently capped off a come-from victory against the Yankees with a walk-off hit. That's not to see he will fall back down to earth. National League pitching has yet to adjust to him. But the early returns look promising for the Marlins.
Meanwhile, Eder has struggled in his first two appearances in the White Sox organization. In just five innings in Double-A Birmingham he has a 16.20 ERA and has allowed eight hits. The 24-year-old is expected to be in the White Sox rotation as soon as next season.
Eder was once considered a top pitching prospect in the Marlins system. He still has plenty of upside but this trade has boom or bust written all over it.
Scouts grade the 6’4 southpaw as a 50 overall on a 20-80 scale. His fastball is his best pitch sitting between 93-96 mph with above-average command. If Eder reaches back he has hit 98 before. Scouts add that his fastball has “ride up in the zone.”
His slider is graded as a 60 and sits in the low 80s. He also has a changeup which isn’t as potent as his slider but he can throw all three pitches for strikes.
However, Eder is coming off Tomy John surgery which put him on the shelf for all of last season, and then fractured his foot which kept him off the mound until June.
"When you combine those two, I think it was like 22 months before I was back in a real game," Eder told reporters. "It was long, but it was good. I learned a lot about myself, learned a lot about my routines. I just took it day by day and that kind of made it seem like it went by quick even though it wasn't, obviously. It was just day by day, getting better each day."
Fans love Jake Burger. The vast majority of the Southside faithful are still rooting for him to succeed in Miami. Because of this Eder will have some big shoes to fill and already faces an uphill battle since most of the fanbase was opposed to the trade.
Being traded and adjusting to a new organization is hard enough. Dealing with the pressure of making the White Sox gamble pay off is even harder. Fans already had to sit through one rebuild listening to how talented the prospects they had were. Now talk is cheap and the patience for prospects has grown thin.
