For Rangers rookie Josh Jung, a breakthrough and a comeback

Apr 10, 2023

Texas Rangers third baseman Josh Jung (6) flies out during a spring training baseball game on Monday, March 27, 2023 in Arlington, Texas.

ARLINGTON – To this day, Josh Jung can't be sure when the cartilage in his shoulder began to fray. Could it have been way back in the seventh grade, when as a bat boy in San Antonio he practiced with MacArthur's high school varsity, trying to prove he could throw the baseball just as hard and hit it just as far as the kids five years older than he was?

Maybe. Then again, all those hits he took playing quarterback for the Brahmas probably didn't help, either. Before he became a senior and gave up football for good, there were plenty of times when he lowered his pads trying to get one more yard, to extend a drive for one more play.

However the deterioration started, Jung knows exactly when the labrum tore all the way. It was 16 months ago in Arizona, right before what he thought was the most important spring training of his life. In the weight room at the Texas Rangers’ complex, Jung set the bench one notch above level, for an incline press. He lifted the barbell off the rack, then felt his left shoulder stick.

The joint ball had slipped out of its socket. Jung says he remembers taking a deep breath as a trainer jiggled it back into place. A few minutes later, as he prepared to take batting practice, he felt another shoulder subluxation as he strapped on his elbow guard.

"That probably was just the last straw," Jung says. "I just thought, ‘That's not good.’"

He smiles telling the story now, because the last straw for his labrum – that rim of cartilage that tore away from his shoulder in February 2022 – became the first piece of one of baseball's best stories of 2023.

Rep by rep, swing by swing, day by day, the kid who’d binge-watched mental-training DVDs at age 11 rebuilt his strength and his confidence. If the labrum had broken down little by little, Jung figured he could come back from surgery the same way.

And today? Texas’ 25-year-old third baseman might be the best rookie in major league baseball, on a surging team poised to make a long-awaited run at another pennant.

For a former top prospect who appeared hopelessly cursed a year ago, the shoulder injury delayed his big-league debut but might have made him better prepared for it.

"I hate saying this," Rangers general manager Chris Young says, "but in a lot of ways that served (Jung) well."

In the spring of 2022, it was hard to see it that way. The Rangers had huge hopes for Jung, who they’d selected with their first-round draft pick – No. 8 overall – after his All-American career at Texas Tech.

He hit the cover off the ball at every level of the minor leagues, but his progress was slowed by a stress fracture in his foot in 2021. Last year, the organization expected him to compete for the opening-day starting job at third base, but the surgery to repair his labrum threatened to take away an entire season.

Looking back, Jung says he was "devastated" by the idea of sitting out that long. But the son of Jeff and Mary Jung –longtime educators who served as a high school baseball coach and a physical education teacher, respectively – went back to the routines he’d developed when watching those mental training DVDs his dad procured at a coaching convention.

Some of the lessons sound corny. There's a lot of visualization exercises, where you imagine having success. But as he tried to get back on the field, it worked.

"Rehab's an animal," Jung says. "It's just a grind. There's bad days, good days, peaks and valleys. You learn a lot of things about yourself, for sure."

Tom Alfieri says he already knew some of those things about Jung. Alfieri was the head coach at MacArthur when Jung – the assistant coach's bat-boy son – started working out with the starters at age 12. He watched the kid who wasn't nearly as big or strong or fast as the juniors and seniors compete with them anyway. And way back then, he made a prediction.

"I used to joke around with him, but deep down I was serious," says Alfieri, now the head coach at Churchill. "I told him, ‘You’re going to play shortstop for the Chicago Cubs.’"

Jung eventually grew into a strong, thick, 6-foot-2, 214-pound frame that made sticking at shortstop unlikely. But he played that position at Tech, showing the agility and hands that made the Rangers believe he'd be well-suited to handle a long-term job at third base.

Had he not suffered two serious injuries, he might be well into his second full major-league season now. But had he stayed on the fast track to the Rangers, he also might have been less equipped to handle the struggles that find every newcomer eventually.

That's what Young, the general manager and former MLB pitcher, means when he says Jung benefitted from dealing with repeated setbacks.

The results so far support that theory. Through Friday, Jung was hitting .291, getting on base at a .336 clip, and slugging .524 while leading all major-league rookies with 12 home runs this season. His defense at third base isn't Gold Glove-caliber yet, but has exceeded all expectations. And he's shown a knack for delivering in big moments, to the point where his veteran manager can't hide his giddiness about watching him play.

"He just keeps doing stuff every day to impress you," says 68-year-old Bruce Bochy, who guided San Francisco to three World Series titles before coming out of retirement to lead the Rangers this season. "The kid's just relentless.

"He just loves baseball. When you’re around him, you can see it, feel it, sense it. I love players who play with joy, and he does."

Jung already has had plenty to rejoice. Last year, he beat the rehabilitation timeline set by trainers and made it back to game action at Triple-A Round Rock in August, six months after his surgery. On Sept. 9, he was called up to the majors.

In his first at-bat, against Toronto righthander Ross Stripling, Jung ripped a changeup over the left-field wall at Globe Life Field. His parents, whose younger son Jace was a first-round pick by the Detroit Tigers last year, told the Rangers’ TV reporter that Josh predicted a homer in his debut when he was a middle-schooler.

The rest of that first month with the Rangers didn't go quite as well, though. Jung struck out 39 times in 26 games, hitting only .204, and there were times he looked overmatched.

Still, Young says the organization had no doubts about their plans to enter the 2023 season with Jung as the Rangers’ starting third baseman. Yes, he was still technically a rookie, and there was a chance he’d flame out like other hyped prospects sometimes do.

But the Rangers had faith in Jung's work ethic, and in his routine. Almost right away this season, that faith was rewarded.

"The big step was just confidence," Jung says. "Going up to the plate really believing in the work I put in that day and trusting myself to just go out there and have fun."

As for the process that brought him back from the pop of his shoulder? Jung doesn't consider that complete yet. In fact, he suspects he never will.

Yes, he was named the American League's rookie of the month in April. Yes, he's a huge contributor to a team that sits in first place in the AL West. Yes, he might end this season with a rookie of the year award.

But the way he sees it, that won't mean he's accomplished anything. It’ll mean he's making progress.

"I feel like I’m getting there," Jung says. "I don't feel like there ever will be a finish-line moment, where I’m like, ‘Ahh, I made it.’"

That makes sense, of course. After all, the cartilage in Jung's shoulder didn't wear away all at once. It happened rep by rep, swing by swing, day by day. The end wasn't good.

But good things can happen the same way.

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Twitter: @mikefinger