Texas Rangers first baseman Jake Burger will be heading into the offseason with surgery on the horizon, as he looks to finally fix a nagging wrist injury that has hampered him since mid-August. The 29-year-old revealed after Sunday’s season-ending loss in Cleveland that he is scheduled to undergo a procedure later this week to repair a torn tendon sheath in his left wrist.
It was a frustrating first year in Texas for Burger, who never quite managed to stay healthy. He landed on the injured list three separate times with wrist, oblique, and quadriceps issues, and even when he was able to play, he was far from his best. After a cortisone shot provided temporary relief in August, Burger tried to push through, but the discomfort quickly returned. “The shot helped for the first half of the month, but then I started doing some compensating,” he admitted. “And I ended up putting myself in a lot of bad counts.”
Despite the setbacks, Burger still managed to contribute at times, closing out the year with a 1-for-3 performance and two RBIs on Sunday. He wrapped up the season with a .236 average, 16 home runs, and 53 RBIs across 103 games numbers that hint at his power potential but also reflect the toll injuries took on his consistency.
Burger arrived in Texas last December in a trade with the Miami Marlins, expected to be a middle-of-the-order bat for a team fresh off a World Series championship. Instead, his first campaign with the Rangers turned into a test of resilience and grit. For a player who once battled back from two Achilles injuries early in his career, this season was yet another reminder of the challenges the game can throw at him.
A former first-round pick of the Chicago White Sox in 2017, Burger has put together a solid career line of .247 with 88 homers and 238 RBIs in 447 games across stints with the White Sox, Marlins, and Rangers. Still, the hope in Texas is that surgery will give him a clean slate and a chance to fully show the kind of hitter he can be when healthy. For Burger, the offseason will be about recovery and renewal, with his eyes set firmly on coming back stronger in 2026.