Rangers’ Jake Burger knows how fast a season can change. Now he’s working to get there

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Texas Rangers first baseman Jake Burger, for especially particular reasons, can and will tell you exactly where his statistics stood this time last season.

“I think this exact day last year,” Burger said Thursday at Angels Stadium, “I was hitting .215 with a .605 OPS.”

He nailed it down to the hundredth of a percentage point. Burger is so aware of the data because, from July 11, 2024 through the end of the season with the Miami Marlins, he slashed .288/.345/.572 and hit 20 home runs. He ended his season with a .760 OPS — a data point which he also recalled off the top of his head — before the Rangers traded for him in December to yield the same offensive production for them.

“I know how fast these things can change,” Burger said. “Paul Konerko, when I first got drafted, told me that if you have two really bad months, two average months and two really good months, you’re a pretty good big leaguer.”

Rangers

The two really good months, Burger believes, are near. The two (well, technically, three) bad ones have been well-documented and landed him in the minor leagues for a brief reset.

The 29-year-old has slashed just .228/.260/.403 with eight home runs, a career-high chase rate, a career-low slugging percentage and dismal numbers against the one pitch that the Rangers believed he could mash. He now believes he’s on a path — partly because of his own corrections and partly because of a firm belief in the law of averages — back to his true self.

“I think it’s just coming back to the mean and back to who you are,” Burger said. “I think through 162 it’s one of those things that, like, the data says you can always end up where you’re supposed to end up.”

The data is what led the Rangers to him. Texas acquired Burger, who replaced incumbent first baseman Nathaniel Lowe, because of the pop he’d bring to the lineup (he hit 63 home runs from 2023-24) and the fastball-hitting weakness he’d address (he slashed .293/.284/.541 against them last season).

His power has produced just 25 extra base hits. He entered play Thursday with eight hits in his last six games, though, but seven have been singles and one was a home run off of Angels third baseman Kevin Newman in Tuesday’s blowout.

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy believes that Burger has taken the right steps toward production despite the lack of slug and that you can’t “try to [find] that power in one week.” Burger is in agreement that the extra base hits will start to fall too as he continues to work better at bats and see the ball better.

The fastballs are a more complicated issue. He’s hit just .214 against them this season and his minus-6 run value vs. four-seam fastballs is among the worst in baseball. It’s prompted a question about what exactly he is seeing against heaters this season.

“Well,” Burger said, “I’m not seeing a lot of them.”

Burger has been thrown fastballs more than 52% in three of his first five seasons in the major leagues. Pitchers threw him fastballs a career-low 50.4% of the time this season and, since June, have thrown him fastballs just 48% of the time. The rate at which he’s seen four-seam fastballs in particular — a pitch that he slashed .302/.375/.651 against last season — has also decreased by 5% since June 1. He’s hit just .118 against them during that span.

He said that hitters can be “lulled to sleep” when they aren’t thrown fastballs on a regular basis and then become caught off guard when they are used. Burger said that he’s tailored his approach since the start of last weekend’s series against the San Diego Padres to prepare for more off-speed pitches, though he said that he’s “never going to chase a weakness.”

“I always want to hit the fastball,” Burger said. “I think that’s where the timing comes in. My move feels good on them. It’s just you’re just not getting a lot of them. Out of nine pitches in two at bats you might see one of them — and it’s probably not in the zone. It’s kind of just the ebbs and flows of the game.”

That’s one tweak. The other? Burger has curtailed his pregame routine and now spends less time in the batting cages. Not just a little, Burger said, but “a lot less.” His hottest stretches, Burger said, included warmups that consisted of just 15-20 flips and 10-15 balls hit off the machine.

He remembers a game at the Oakland Coliseum, when he was a member of the Chicago White Sox, in which he wasn’t expected to play. He took the last bus to the field (“Which I never do,” Burger said), didn’t take batting practice and wasn’t able to workout in the cages during the game because the stadium wasn’t equipped with an indoor setup.

“I had to pinch hit,” Burger said. “My first swing of the day was on deck and I hit a backside line drive like 108 [mph]. We all know how to hit, you know? It’s almost trying to stay out of your own way at times.”

He hasn’t been alone in his downscale. The Rangers staff has encouraged players as a whole to cut back on pregame hitting. Bochy believes that the deluge of swings can catch up to players both physically and mentally. Hitting coach Bret Boone, hired in May to bring a fresh perspective to the club’s offensive struggles, is also a staunch believer that “you can hit too much.”

“We play every day,” Boone said. “It’s not like we play once a week. We play every day and we plan on going to the postseason. That’s a lot of hacks. I try to tell these guys, ‘Sometimes having a chance is enough.’ You don’t have to go down there and be perfect every day because you’re not going to be perfect.”

Said Burger: “Before you know it, you’re at the bottom of the bucket, and you’re like ‘Dude, I just took a ton of swings.’ You actually feel more tired.”

He can’t get tired now.

The two good months are supposed to be around the corner.

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