{"id":722721,"date":"2026-06-10T23:21:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T23:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/722721\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T23:21:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T23:21:15","slug":"rangers-might-be-preparing-contingency-plan-for-struggling-jake-burger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/722721\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers might be preparing contingency plan for struggling Jake Burger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>KANSAS CITY,\u00a0Mo. \u2014 Maybe it\u2019s just a weird confluence of events. Maybe the Rangers are starting to get <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/article\/texas-rangers-corey-seager-jake-burger-22285216.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">concerned about Jake Burger<\/a> against right-handed pitching.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In the minor leagues, Josh Smith, a left-handed hitter, played first base on his rehab assignment on Tuesday. Alejandro Osuna, another left-handed hitter, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/article\/chris-young-alejandro-osuna-first-base-jake-burger-22296916.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">is taking reps at first base at Triple-A Round Rock<\/a>. Nicky Lopez, a left-handed utility player, took some ground balls at first base in the last week with the Rangers. And Wednesday, Ezequiel Duran, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/sports\/rangers\/article\/rangers-ezequiel-duran-josh-jung-jacob-degrom-22295127.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the team\u2019s hottest hitter<\/a>, albeit a right-handed one, played first base while Burger got the day off &#8230; against a right-handed starter.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Manager Skip Schumaker said it was simply a day to get Burger a rest day because the Rangers are in the midst of a stretch of 23 games in 24 days. Then again, he had Monday off, too, as did the whole team. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think we&#8217;re always trying to find versatility,\u201d Schumaker said. \u201cWhen Jake needs a day off, who is going to be the guy that plays first base? We\u2019re trying to find that. And I\u2019m not going to give him a day against a lefty; that doesn\u2019t seem like the right day for a day off.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Then again, Burger is slashing .223\/.285\/.391\/.676 against right-handed starting pitching this year, which is quite similar to last year\u2019s .226\/.250\/.409\/.659 against right-handed starters. He\u2019s had almost 500 plate appearances against righty starters the last two years and the numbers are a significant downturn from his previous career OPS of .781 against right-handed starters and may suggest a platoon would benefit him.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KANSAS CITY,\u00a0Mo. \u2014 Maybe it\u2019s just a weird confluence of events. Maybe the Rangers are starting to get&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,4,149,1567,69,3240,87965,83514],"class_list":["post-722721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas-rangers","tag-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-rangers","tag-texas","tag-texas-rangers","tag-texasrangers","tag-tp-jake-burger","tag-tp-texas-rangers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116728383641995521","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}