Peter Bendix addresses 'difficult decision' to trade Jake Burger

DALLAS—The Miami Marlins surprised the baseball world when they traded away Jake Burger to the Texas Rangers around midnight on the final night of the Winter Meetings. In return, Miami received INF Echedry Vargas, INF Max Acosta and LHP Brayan Mendoza.

Each of the three prospects had varying degrees of success in 2024, though none of them are major league-ready yet. After the trade, MLB Pipeline updated their Marlins Top 30 prospects list with Vargas ranked 16th, Acosta ranked 17th and Mendoza ranked 29th.

Burger provided pop to a team that severely lacked it. The Marlins hit only 150 home runs in 2024, the fourth-lowest total in the majors, with Burger accounting for 29 of those in 137 games. In 53 games with Miami in 2023, he hit nine home runs with an .860 OPS. He finished with 34 home runs between his time with the White Sox and Marlins that year. 

Entering his age-29 season, Burger had four years left of team control before he would be eligible to become a free agent. He could've accrued plate appearances at first base, designated hitter or third base, depending on how the roster filled in around him. His salary would have been only a smidge above the league minimum (he made $760k last season).

Why did the Burger trade have to happen now? 

Marlins president of baseball operations Peter Bendix did not offer many specifics. He issued a similarly vague response to the one he gave after trading Luis Arraez to the San Diego Padres in May.

“It was a really difficult decision,” Bendix said on Wednesday. "They always are. This was especially difficult with Jake, and ultimately we felt confident enough and strong enough in the return that we were getting for him that we thought it was the right thing to do right now."

Bendix praised how Acosta has "improved tremendously every single year" and projects him to continue playing shortstop moving forward. Vargas is "really tooled up" with "tremendous upside long term." Mendoza appealed to the club with his deep pitch mix and track record of performance.

Perhaps Burger was becoming more expendable due to the young infield bats who arrived earlier this year in separate trades. The Marlins installed Connor Norby as their everyday third baseman in August. While he's still a work in progress, Burger previously had a long leash to prove himself there and continued to rate poorly, recording negative-11 outs above average there during his Marlins tenure. Burger spent time more time at first base in 2024, but another summer trade acquisition, Deyvison De Los Santos, is a natural at the position and accelerating toward the majors quickly. 

“We think really highly of (De Los Santos),” Bendix said. “He hit 40 home runs across the minor leagues last year at age 20. That's really hard to do. I think he's got a very bright future. I don't know the specifics of when that is going to happen, but I think he's got a really bright future.”

Bendix was also non-committal about where the other players atop Miami's infield depth chart—Jonah Bride, Connor Norby, Otto Lopez, Xavier Edwards and Jonah Bride—will line up come Opening Day. 

Jesús Sánchez, at 27 years old with 3.118 years of MLB service time, is now the oldest and most experienced position player on the team.

“(Signing a veteran) is one of the things we're certainly looking at,” Bendix said. “I think having veteran presence, having leadership in the clubhouse, is really important, and we're always looking for ways to address that.”

Burger is now reunited with former manager Skip Schumaker, who is a senior advisor with the Rangers, and Luis Urueta, who was hired as Bruce Bochy's bench coach. As the Rangers roster is currently constructed, he figures to get the majority of his playing time at DH.