Miami Marlins experimenting with Jake Burger at first base. How it could help the team

The expectation entering this season was for Jake Burger to get significant playing time at third base and designated hitter for the Miami Marlins.

But a third position has now entered the mix.

Marlins manager Skip Schumaker is planning to have Burger get spot starts at first base this season. The first chance to see how that looks comes Monday night when the Marlins play the New York Mets in Port St. Lucie.

Burger has played five career games at first base and made just two starts at the position at the MLB level, with all of those appearances coming last season while with the Chicago White Sox before being traded to the Marlins.

The rationale behind the decision comes down to a few points.

One: The Marlins only have one true first baseman on their 40-man roster in Josh Bell, and the plan is for Bell to get occasional days at designated hitter.

Two: The addition of Tim Anderson moves utility player Jon Berti off the everyday shortstop role that he was projected to have at the start of spring training. The Marlins like Berti’s defensive metrics at third base and envision him getting his share of playing time there (as well as occasional starts in second base, shortstop and left field).

Three: The Marlins want to have Bell and Burger in the lineup as frequently as possible, as the two together provide the Marlins a potent punch at the top or middle of the lineup to help augment the departure of Jorge Soler and his 36 home runs from last season.

With all that in mind, the Marlins will field occasional lineups that feature Burger at first base, Bell at designated hitter and Berti at third base.

And Burger is embracing the opportunity.

“I think first baseman in general kind of get overlooked,” Burger said last week. “It’s a tough position to be really good at. The old adage is everybody knows what a bad first baseman looks like, but nobody knows really good first baseman looks like. I give credit to the guys over there, but I feel comfortable over there. I think all the work I’ve put into third base is only going to apply elsewhere as well.”

How the defense plays out will be seen in due time.

What the Marlins hope is that Burger continues to produce at the plate like he did for the final two months of the season after Miami acquired him at the trade deadline for pitcher prospect Jake Eder.

In 53 games with Miami, Burger had a .303 batting average with an .860 on-base-plus-slugging mark, nine home runs, 13 doubles and 28 RBI. He struck out in just 21.7 percent of his 217 plate appearances with the Marlins.

For comparison, Burger hit just .214 in his first 88 games of the season with the White Sox. His OPS remained high (.806) because of 25 home runs but he also struck out 31.6 percent of the time (102 strikeouts in 323 plate appearances) in that stretch.

“The numbers when I came over versus the end of the season kind of told the story,” Burger said. “I kept the [average] up but also didn’t lose any power numbers in that regard. Obviously it’s a fine line, but just worked on everything over the offseason.”

Roster cuts

The Marlins on Monday reassinged four players to minor-league camp: right-handed pitchers Matt Andriese Luarbert Arias and Kyle Tyler as well as catcher Paul McIntosh.

In addition, right-handed pitcher Roddery Muñoz, infielders Jacob Amaya and Jonah Bride, and outfielder Victor Mesa Jr. have been optioned to Triple A Jacksonville.