ARLINGTON -- Jake Burger and his wife went to bed early, around 9:45 p.m., at their home in Nashville on Tuesday night.
Around 10:05 their two-year-old son woke up with a nightmare. While his wife went off to scare the monsters, Burger remained in the room before getting a phone call. He was told that he was being traded from the Marlins, where he had been since the 2023 Trade Deadline, to the Rangers.
“I was super ecstatic,” Burger said on Zoom. “I got the news and I just couldn't hold it in. I wanted her to get out of the room as fast as possible so I could just tell her. She came downstairs and I told her, and both of us were so excited to join such an awesome organization.”
Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young said that Burger has been on Texas’ radar in one way or another since he was with the White Sox from 2021-23.
Burger adds some much-needed power to the Rangers’ lineup. He had 29 homers and 76 RBIs for the Marlins in 2024. In 2023, he hit a career-high 34 homers with the White Sox and Marlins and recorded an .827 OPS. He hits an elevated fastball better than anybody on the Rangers not named Corey Seager.
He’s the perfect complement to the lineup.
“Our pro scouting department did a tremendous job and our R&D department, as well, identified him as somebody who upgrades our team in an area that maybe we underperformed last year,” Young said. “We think he's a great fit. We got comfortable with the person based on some of our relationships and contacts there, and felt like this was a good way to improve our team.”
And it seems like former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker and bench coach Luis Urueta made an immediate impact on the Rangers organization. Both were with Miami during Burger’s tenure as a Marlin. Ureta recently joined the Rangers in the same position, while Schumaker joined the organization as a senior adviser to Young.
“Those guys helped me so much both on and off the field,” Burger said. “Getting back into an organization with them is awesome. It's just a lot of good feelings, exciting feelings. I wish we were going down to Arizona [for Spring Training] tomorrow.”
Burger is clearly excited to join a club just a year removed from the World Series, with a deep offensive lineup that underperformed in 2024. He got his first taste of the postseason in 2023, when the Marlins had an NL Wild Card bid. He wants to return this year with Texas.
“I think this organization is one of the best in baseball, if not the best,” Burger said. “I’m seeing that from the front office and ownership, and I think everybody wants to do what they did a couple years ago. That's the biggest thing. Obviously, last year was a down year. That happens in baseball. But I think everybody's motivated to get back where they belong and deserve to be.”
Burger also added that a move to Dallas is perfect on a personal level. He’s friends with Dane Dunning from their time together in the White Sox organization. He has personal experience with manager Bruce Bochy, who currently lives in his neighborhood in Nashville.
More importantly, Dallas is home to The Down Syndrome Clinic at Children’s Health, which provides expert care to help children with Down syndrome, such as Burger's newborn daughter.
“Living in Dallas will be great, not just from the baseball aspect, but from the life aspect as well,” Burger said. “I feel like it was meant to be, and we couldn't be more excited about that.”