A lost season wouldn’t squeeze White Sox’s 40-man roster

An old Jake Burger photo still does the job.

They said it couldn’t be done, but I found one way that the start of Jake Burger’s professional career could be tougher.

If the summer comes and goes without any resemblance of a proper minor-league season — and if rules for protecting players from the Rule 5 draft remain largely intact — the White Sox won’t really have a bubble of players to consider. Here’s the pool when surveying the collegiate players selected in the 2016 draft and the international signings from the 2015-16 signing period:

Sheets and Johnson are the only ones who warranted protection based on the track records in terms of health and performance. Gonzalez plays center field and doesn’t strike out all that much from the left side, so they’d probably add him as well.

Everybody else appeared like they would have to play their way onto the radar. Burger would just have to play, period.

It’s not a given that prospects will be entirely out of action this season. Some are trying to figure out ways for players who need to earn 40-man jobs to show progress. Over at Baseball America, managing editor J.J. Cooper pitched the idea of super-sized Arizona and Florida fall leagues. Instead of each team contributing a handful of prospects toward six total rosters as in the current Arizona Fall League, they would assemble their own teams to play a spring training-like schedule in their respective states.

Cooper went on to compile a number of potential rosters for the most exciting farm systems. The White Sox no longer qualify for this group, especially in a scenario where Luis Robert and Michael Kopech are in Chicago and out of the mix. However, if you can set aside a shortage of infield talent away from first base, the White Sox could assemble a team of decent prospects that could compete at the typical AFL level (Double-A or so).

There’s room for Burger if he somehow proves ready for this kind of challenge, especially if both Mendick and Madrigal are part of the major-league mix. That shouldn’t be Plan A, or Plan F for that matter, so they could otherwise try Yermín Mercedes at third if he’s available, or dip down to the Zach Remillards and the Laz Riverae of the world to get by.

If there’s no way for Burger to get into the kind of position where he can even stand a chance in upper-level action — picture Jared Mitchell in the Arizona Fall League in 2010 — then the eased 40-man considerations soften the blow a touch. Basabe and Adolfo are hanging out in the roster above, showing what complications can arise from starting the clock early on injury-prone players. At the White Sox will get a fourth option year out for Adolfo for his troubles. Depending on how much baseball can be played in 2020, a fifth one might not be out of the question, either.

Take a second to support Sox Machine on Patreon
3 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
LamarJohnson

Any idea what was Burger’s health status as of Spring Training? Did he have a legitimate ETA for starting the season anywhere? All I could find on a simple google search was that after some time in Green Bay, he was in AZ “rehabbing”.

Garyzenker

I was able to attend last 3 exhibition games in Glendale before the shutdown . I saw Jake on back fields working out on with the other minor leaguers mostly at 3rd base. I did not notice a limp but I am no Dr !