Rangers demotion of Jake Burger is first sign of major offensive changes expected

After a rough start to the 2025 season for Jake Burger, the Rangers are tired of waiting around for everything to click at the plate and have decided to send him down to Triple-A to in an effort to get his mind right.

The news comes as Burger, 29, is slashing .190/.231/.330 with a .561 OPS in 100 at-bats to kick off the year. He is also fresh off the four-game series against the A's where he went 1-for-8 in the final two games with 4 strikeouts.

Burger's demotion while not ideal does pave the way for one of the Rangers' scorching hot minor leaguers to finally make his way to the big leagues after six years. Blaine Crim, the team's 19th-round pick in 2019 is being called up to replace Burger. Crim is hitting .313 this season and leads the Round Rock Express in RBIs (25) and home runs (7) in the team's first 28 games of the season.

Burger's demotion shows that almost no one on the roster is safe

Jake Burger's acquisiton in the offseason was one of the moments that led Rangers' fans to believe 2024 is behind this team and the offense is 100% going to turn a corner. The front office seemed to think so as well, not only trading Nathaniel Lowe to Washington but also trading three top prospects to Miami to get him.

He'd been a mark of consistency over the last three seasons, hitting .250 with 71 home runs, 182 RBIs, 60 doubles and averaging a .782 in 329 games with the White Sox and Marlins. Two teams that have quite frankly been bottom barrel. It was expected that Burger would use that consistency to good use and that the Rangers' deep lineup would only elevate that production.

But along with Burger, the offense (minus a few standouts) has been practically non-existent. Entering Friday, the Rangers are 23rd in batting average (.229), 29th in runs scored (103), 23rd in hits (236), 25th in OPS (.652) and 29th in walks (74).

All that has resulted in a 3-7 record over their last 10 games and only 36 runs (15 in one game) and they have dropped from being alone in first place to fourth in the AL West.

Who is in jeopardy of losing their spot?

Adding Crim to the roster would require adding him to the 40-man roster first, the Rangers need to remove someone by trading or releasing them.

The easy answer to that solution is to DFA a pitcher like Gerson Gerabito or Cole Winn. Even infielders Nick Ahemd or Jonathan Ornelas. The real deal move would be to finally part ways with centefielder Leody Taveras.

Taveras has been pretty dreadful at the plate and in the outfield this season. He's made costly errors and his bat isn't enough to justify keeping him. The reason they won't go that route, yet, is because Taveras is still a reliable fourth outfielder, who stays healthy.

Other names to keep an eye out to get the axe from the Rangers would be Kevin Pillar or pitcher Caleb Boushley.

Either way they go, serious changes are indeed in the wakes like Chris Young hinted to earlier this week, so everybody play like their jobs depend on it, please?