DALLAS (AP) — Texas acquired slugging corner infielder Jake Burger from Miami for three minor league players Wednesday during the winter meetings, and the Rangers later signed reliever Jacob Webb to a $1.25 million contract to bolster their bullpen.
The Rangers made those moves a day after accomplishing one of their primary offseason goals with a deal to re-sign Nathan Eovaldi, the winning pitcher in their 2023 World Series clincher.
Burger hit .250 with 29 home runs and 76 RBIs in 137 games for the Marlins last season, with 150 strikeouts in 535 at-bats with 31 walks. He started 59 games at third base and made 50 starts at first. Five days of service time short of being eligible for salary arbitration this offseason, he will be eligible next winter and can become a free agent after the 2028 World Series.
“He's played third, he's played some first, DH. And I think that’s a pretty good fit in terms of building out our depth with our current lineup and adding an impact bat,” said Chris Young, the team's president of baseball operations. “We’ve said one of our goals is to get back to being a very good offense that we were in 2023. We think he helps us with that.”
Miami got infielders Max Acosta and Echedry Vargas and left-handed pitcher Brayan Mendoza.
The 31-year-old Webb made his big league debut with Atlanta in 2019, and also pitched for the Los Angeles Angels, set career highs with Baltimore last season with 56 2/3 innings pitched and 58 strikeouts while going 2-5 with two saves and a 3.02 ERA in 60 appearances. He is 12-10 with six saves and a 2.98 ERA in 192 career games.
“A proven right-handed reliever, been on a winning team. Real competitor. We’ve got multiple needs in our bullpen, and we feel like he certainly raises the floor and gives us a reliable, solid option,” Young said. “It's not a veteran per se, in terms of service time, but he’s a veteran in terms of being battle-tested.”
The acquisition of Burger comes about a month after the Rangers hired former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker as a senior adviser for baseball operations. Luis Urueta, Miami's bench coach the past two seasons, also was added recently to manager Bruce Bochy's on-field coaching staff for 2025.
Burger was the 11th overall pick out of Missouri State by the Chicago White Sox in the 2017 amateur draft and made his big league debut in 2021. He was dealt to Miami at the trade deadline during the 2023 season, when he hit .250 with 34 homers and 80 RBIs in 141 games.
“He’s an aggressive hitter that makes hard contact, a lot of hard contact,” Bochy said. “We’re excited to have him. He’s going to make us a better offense and help get us back to where we were couple of years ago, and be one of the elite offenses in the game, and he’ll be part of it.”
Burger hit 22 homers from July 1 until the end of last season, the third most in the National League during that span, behind only unanimous NL MVP Shohei Ohtani (28) for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona's Eugenio Suárez (24).
Texas had a .238 batting average this year while hitting 176 home runs and averaging 4.2 runs a game. Those stats all were down significantly from the World Series championship season in 2023, when the Rangers averaged 5.4 runs a game and hit .263 with 233 homers.
Primary first baseman Nathaniel Lowe won a Silver Slugger with Texas after hitting .302 in 2022, then was a Gold Glove winner that World Series season. He hit .265 with 16 homers and 69 RBIs last season.
Third baseman Josh Jung was voted an All-Star starter as a rookie in 2023 but broke his right wrist when hit by a pitch this past April 1.
The 26-year-old was 7 of 17 with two homers, six RBIs and five runs scored in the first four games of the season before the injury and missing 102 games while on the injured list until the end of July. Jung finished the season at .264 with seven homers and 16 RBIs in 46 games, but missed the final week when he went back on the IL for wrist tendinitis.
___
AP MLB: https://www.apnews.com/hub/MLB
Stephen Hawkins, The Associated Press
