When you think about the first half of the Chicago White Sox season, you might think about the injuries that the team has dealt with. Superstars like Eloy Jimenez and Luis Robert have been gone for a long time which is a huge hit to the team. However, sometimes injury to one player leads to the opportunity for another. Jake Burger knows a thing or two about injuries. After a long road back to baseball, he finally made his MLB debut on Friday night.
It was so sweet to see Jake Burger make his Chicago White Sox debut on Friday.
Jake Burger is an incredibly talented hitter. There is a reason that the White Sox used their 11th overall pick on him in 2017. He is the first draft pick that they made following the firesale that is now known as the rebuild.
Unfortunately, multiple terrible injuries have made it very hard for Burger to develop over the last five years. Add in the COVID-19 pandemic to 2020 and you have a lot of time without baseball if you weren’t a Major Leaguer dealing with this stuff. Luckily for White Sox fans and Burger himself, he never gave up. If there is anything to learn from Burger in this instance, it is to never give up no matter what type of struggles life throws at you.
Jake Burger is the MAN! So proud of him pic.twitter.com/AHeGy6rIwG
— DaWindyCityFS (@DaWindyCityFS) July 3, 2021
After watching this postgame interview, you can tell what it means to him to be in this position. His parents told him to never have any regrets and quitting would give him a tremendous amount of regret. He admitted they were right in this interview and was visibly emotional during it. It is good to see him this happy with the way things shook out after some unfortunate luck.
That is all in the past now. Jake Burger is in the MLB and it is up to him to stay there. As of right now, there is no reason to even think about keeping him down. The White Sox currently has an extra reliever on the roster right now so Burger can absolutely stay when Yoan Moncada comes back from injury.
Moncada is obviously going to be the permanent third baseman but Burger can be a great backup and designated hitter from time to time. You also know that there is going to be more opportunity to play as the season goes along.
He went 2-4 with a double and a run scored in his debut which was very nice for him. He will eventually hit his first career home run and do all of that fun stuff which is something extra to look forward to in addition to the first-place team around him. Hopefully, a long healthy career is in store for Jake Burger.