Too many people are sleeping on young Rangers star who’s off to an incredible start.
Josh Jung is quietly making a name for himself to start the 2024 season.
The Texas Rangers are in the enviable position of having a lot of exciting players on their roster that get a lot of attention. Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, and Adolis Garcia are established stars in the league, Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom are household names when they are healthy, and the rookie duo of Evan Carter and Wyatt Langford are getting a ton of buzz early in 2024. As a result, guys like Josh Jung have, at times, gotten lost in the shuffle.
In Jung’s case, he certainly arrived in the big leagues to a good bit of fanfare as he was a highly-ranked prospect and a top-10 draft pick out of Texas Tech. He also played well in 2023, where he made the All-Star team and slashed .266/.315/.467 on his way to a fourth place finish in the AL Rookie of the Year race.However, the overwhelming star power on the Rangers has seen Jung treated as an afterthought by many, especially in the national media.
Well, Jung is well on his way to getting himself right back on the map because he is absolutely raking to start the 2024 season.
Josh Jung’s hot start for the Rangers is putting him right back on the map
Part of the issue with Jung’s relative lack of exposure this season is because he missed a chunk of spring training while dealing with a calf injury. Given the number of eyeballs on Rangers’ camp with Wyatt Langford’s loud spring, more people would have probably taken notice of Jung if he was actually playing.Luckily, Jung’s injury and subsequent layoff haven’t seemed to impact him at all to start the 2024 season. Through his first 15 plate appearances this season, Jung is slashing .308/.400/.769 with three extra-base hits. In a Rangers lineup full of absolute studs, no hitter provided Texas with more value than Jung.
Will that stick? Honestly, probably not. Corey Seager is going to go on a run that puts him in the MVP discussion again and we haven’t seen the best out of Langford or Carter yet. However, Jung doesn’t need to be the best player on the Rangers’ roster to be appreciated. At this rate, he will be right in the running again for another All-Star selection and he is already a top-10 third baseman in MLB.
Just don’t act surprised if he ends up being a bigger piece of the Rangers’ offense than his coverage would indicate.
