We now have some inside information on how Jake Burger’s trade to the Marlins went down.
Miami’s GM Kim Ng went on Marlins Radio during Wednesday night’s game to discuss her team’s newest additions. When talking about her deal with the White Sox specifically, Ng shared that Executive VP Kenny Williams was a key point of contact. She cited their good friendship and her previous tenure with the organization as being beneficial in conversations between the two sides.
“The time was ticking on the clock in terms of getting a deal done,” Ng said. “We probably had a handful of deals that we thought were there or close to being there. But we really felt that we had to get one locked in. So at that point, we decided to go with Mr. Burger. Called Kenny Williams, got that one done in the books.”
“Not too many deals between the Marlins and White Sox over the years, I saw,” broadcaster Kyle Sielaff added.
“Not too many, but considering I’m an alumni of that group,” Ng added with a smile. “Had a pretty good relationship with Kenny.”
Before becoming the first woman and first person of East Asian descent to serve as an MLB general manager, Ng got her professional career started in the sport when she took a baseball operations internship with the White Sox in 1990. A year later, she was hired full-time and continued to climb the ladder of multiple positions within the organization.
Under then General Manager Ron Schueler, Ng was named the Assistant Director of Baseball Operations in 1995 and became the youngest person, and the first woman, to present a salary arbitration case in Major League Baseball. The story from there writes itself, as Ng has continued to make advances in several other prominent positions elsewhere before landing in Miami.
Around this same time, Williams rejoined the organization following his retirement and began serving as a minor league scout in 1992. The former White Sox was later named a special assistant to Jerry Reinsdorf in 1994, and then the director of minor league operations a year after.
Naturally, as the above clip began circulating on social media, White Sox fans began wondering why Ng was interacting with Williams and not GM Rick Hahn when making this trade. Aside from the pre-existing relationship between the two former colleagues, which certainly provided a good starting point, it seems fair to speculate that Hahn was working on the additional trades that went down on Tuesday. This isn’t to say Hahn wasn’t involved in some way, but it also wouldn’t be so far-fetched for him to have delegated some of the work while trying to finalize the other moves.
Based on what we know about this organization and how the front office has functioned prior, it seems that Williams and Hahn do a lot of decision-making together anyways. Therefore, it’s hard to feel overly alarmed by turning this into a question of leadership or trust solely off the rather brief comments made by Ng.
In the Burger trade, despite losing a fan-favorite slugger, the White Sox received left-handed pitching prospect Jake Eder in return. The 24-year-old southpaw entered the season coming off Tommy John surgery and has spent time with the Marlins Double-A affiliate. He was ranked as the second overall prospect in the Marlins’ system, per Baseball America, with the following review:
“Before the surgery, Eder showed a dynamic two-pitch mix fronted by a one-two punch of a low-to-mid-90s fastball and slider which each project as plus. His fastball had the type of riding life at the top of the strike zone that is coveted today. Eder also showed a strong feel to lengthen and shorten the break on his slider, with the former version looking like a harder curveball. Eder’s third pitch, a low-80s changeup, had a ceiling as an average offering with further refinement. A small tweak in the way Eder removed the ball from his glove at the beginning of his delivery helped improve his command and control, which projected as plus before the operation. He is a dedicated student of the game who keeps a journal of what worked and didn’t work during each of his starts.”
– Baseball America
On the season, Eder has a 3.94 ERA with a 30.6% strikeout rate and a 12.9% walk rate over 29.2 innings thrown. Before his injury, as a 22-year-old in Double-A in 2021, Eder had a 1.77 ERA in 71.1 innings – certainly an impressive feat for someone his age. He has been assigned to the Birmingham Barons, though hasn’t yet made his organizational debut.
Eder is certainly an intriguing return and someone who could absolutely be up in the major leagues in the near future. We will continue to monitor his progress closely this season and the ones to come.
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Featured Photo: © Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
Wow. Actually been confirmed Kenny has the last call on trades. I always suspected as much. Despite the fact I like the moves they made , the front office is still a s_ _t show.
I’ve been a die hard sox fan since 1990. In all that time I’ve never been as upset and frustrated with the “team” as I have after the Burger trade. Yeah, he’s not Trout, but he is a guy that will continue to get better and had consistently been 15% better than league average and he’s actually a likeable guy. They get a flier on a recently injured prospect that had yet to prove himself at the level and nothing else?
The comments Burger made after his 1st game with the Marlins, cements what everyone knows. The Sox are a excrement show. Burger pretty said his 1st game in Miami was the most fun he’s had in a while. That just tells me that no on that roster wants to be there. Until Ebenezer Jerry is gone and a new owner comes in to clean house… Sox will continue to be the Laughing Stock of MLB