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White Sox Instructional League rosters announced

All the expected players show up ... except for Jake Burger

Learning is fundamental: The unpaid portion of the schedule now begins for the most promising, low-level minor leaguers.
Kim Contreras/South Side Sox

So, the White Sox Instructional League rosters were released (h/t Kyle Glaser at Baseball America), and pretty much all of the expected names are there:

The list includes our 2019 DSL Player of the Year Benyamin Bailey as well as 2019 AZL Player of the Year José Rodriguez. A quick check, and it doesn’t appear that any player above the Kannapolis level has been asked to participate in instructs (although technically, Alec Hansen has pitched in Double-A in his career). The roster includes 21 pitchers, five catchers, 13 infielders and 11 outfielders, for a total of 50 players.

(A brief reminder that minor leaguers are not paid for their month of Instructional League play ... and it’s not because they’re so overpaid in the regular season!)

One name, long speculated, is missing: Jake Burger. Burger is still fighting a sore heel, surely related to rehabilitating his second torn Achilles in 2018. It’s a real blow for the former first-round pick. James Fegan apparently telegraphed this move in a story last week, quoting director of player development Chris Geta as saying “It’s tough to really mark his participation level” right now.

It’s also notable that Bryce Bush’s move to right field from third base may be permanent, as he played more than three-quarters of his regular season games in right field and is listed as an outfielder on the instructs roster.