Trade details: Rangers acquire IF Jake Burger from the Miami Marlins for IF Echedry Vargas, IF Max Acosta and LHP Brayan Mendoza
The Rangers should be trying to win this year, hoping for better health across the board and some natural regression up to the mean after a disappointing follow-up to their first-ever World Championship. Their trade of three lower-tier prospects to Miami for Jake Burger doesn’t do a whole lot to improve their outlook for 2025, though, as Burger’s skill set is limited just to power and he isn’t a good fit for the Rangers’ current roster.
Burger was a 0.5 bWAR/1.4 fWAR player last year, a bad defensive third baseman who doesn’t get on base at all (.301 OBP in 2024, matching his career OBP as well). He has power, with 63 homers over the past two seasons, his only two full seasons in the majors, and he would have ranked second on the 2024 Rangers in homers and slugging, behind only Corey Seager.
The problem is that he’s not better than the Rangers’ incumbent at first base, Nathaniel Lowe, who had a .361 OBP last year and has a career walk rate that is double that of Burger. Burger is not better than the Rangers’ current options for DH, which right now is whichever one of the three corner outfielders isn’t playing the field that day out of Adolis García, Evan Carter (if healthy), and Wyatt Langford. Third base is out of the question on its face given Burger’s defense, even before we discuss Josh Jung, who is likely to bounce back after missing most of 2024 with a fractured wrist.
This trade probably signals more moves to come — I assume Ezequiel Duran’s tenure as a Ranger is over, for one — but they’ll likely be moving out a better player than Burger just to make space.
For the Marlins, this is a no-brainer. Burger is 28 this year and isn’t very good, so even though he has one more year of pre-arbitration salaries, he isn’t someone the Marlins should be keeping with an eye on whenever it is that they return to contention. They can give the at-bats that he might have taken up at first base to a prospect, maybe Deyvison De Los Santos or Agustin Ramírez — although I’m not a big believer in either — which would be a better use of the limited resource of playing time for a club that is nowhere near contention.
The return is headlined by shortstop Echedry Vargas, who hit .276/.321/.454 as a 19-year-old in Low A last year. He’s got some juice, surprisingly so for a smaller-framed guy, but he swings wildly, chasing even fastballs out of the zone. I’ve seen Vargas live and was disappointed in the bat speed, which looked closer to average, playing up a little just because he swings as hard as he can all the time. He’s still so young and has tools — he’s an above-average runner and should be a 55 defender (out of a 20-80 scouting scale) at second or third — but the Marlins have a lot of development work to do here.
Max Acosta is a 22-year-old middle infielder who probably isn’t a shortstop long-term and doesn’t have much power or on-base skills, but he rarely strikes out and can play short or second well enough to be a utility infielder. I don’t see much physical projection here to make me think he can get to everyday-player power.
Left-hander Brayan Mendoza has a 55 changeup and throws a ton of strikes with a short arm action that doesn’t get him over his front side well, so his low-90s fastball plays down a little. His slider is at least average, so there are elements for a starter here, with the caveat that he might give up too much hard contact on the fastball as he moves up. The Venezuelan starter will turn 21 in January and threw 101 innings in 2024, mostly in Low A, with 109 strikeouts and just 25 walks.
It’s possible that these guys don’t pan out for the Marlins, as Vargas and Mendoza have upside but some significant developmental obstacles, while Acosta doesn’t seem to have much ceiling, but I’d rather see them roll the dice on players like them than give 600 PAs to a player who might get to 1 WAR if he has a good season.
(Photo of Burger: Rich Storry / Getty Images)
