Jake Burger Is Taking Strides Towards Recovery

Jake Burger, the White Sox first-round pick in 2017 is working his way back from a catastrophic achilles injury in Spring Training. After a few promising appearances in big-league games, Burger was sniped legging out a routine ground ball.

The prognosis was grim and Burger was scheduled to miss the entire 2018 seasons, something that gave White Sox fans pause as the rebuild was set back a year. But more bad news hit the airwaves a month later as word broke that Burger re-injured himself walking in his backyard.

“He was walking in his backyard and took a step and unfortunately felt a pop,’’ Hahn said. “It appears nothing could’ve been done to prevent this, much like the first one, just something that happens. Doctors are very optimistic that the second repair will take, especially with the graft tissue attachment.

In his comments to the press on Wednesday, Hahn said that Burger could begin baseball activities as early as Jan. 1 and if all goes well, could join an affiliate by June 1. The injury was immediately addressed but Burger lost a month of recovery time and is now scheduled to return in June of 2019. He will be 23 years old and have to work his way back through A-ball, a reality that throws his role as the future third baseman into question. He has not played a full season of professional baseball yet and the laundry list of adjustments Burger will need to make on an accelerated schedule is concerning. But aside from assuming his ETA is pushed back to 2021, the bigger question is whether he his body can rebound from such a burdensome injury. Let's face it, Burger is not a trim fella and carrying around the kind of weight that he is naturally built with raises questions about whether his legs can handle the force. Achillies injuries are unlike any other injury in that they can be extraordinarily painful and delicate to rehab. Burger and the White Sox medical team would be wise to exercise patience in building him back up to fighting weight, especially if they want to build him into the player he was (and still is) expected to be.