Can Josh Jung buy some good luck for a change? | Williams
Josh Jung sticks around his college home of Lubbock during baseball's off-season, hanging out and working out with his baseball-playing brother Jace. For the past few winters, no catching-up-with-Josh story has been complete without the obligatory discussion of whatever misfortune befell him the season before.
Ask Josh his goals for the upcoming year, and it usually started with staying healthy.
"Get me some bubble wrap, please," the Texas Rangers' third baseman has said jokingly more than once about his luck with injuries.
Good-natured though he might be, Jung surely doesn't feel like joking about this latest setback. It's getting to be a little much, no? The former Texas Tech baseball all-American is looking at significant down time yet again after he was hit by a pitch Monday night in Tampa and suffered a broken right wrist.
Tampa Bay Rays reliever Phil Maton came up and in, Jung turned into the pitch and it smashed into his taped wrist. It reminded me the pitch on which Elvis Andrus suffered a fractured right elbow in 2018 that landed the then-Rangers shortstop on the injured list for the first time.
Jung was scheduled for surgery Tuesday with a plate and screws inserted to help healing, the Dallas Morning News reported. Rangers general manager Chris Young told reporters Jung is expected to miss six weeks.
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So the 2024 season, one that already had begun with such promise for Josh — in four games, he's batting .412 with two home runs and six runs batted in — will be his fourth year in a row to be sidelined by injury.
"It's a tough deal," Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. "He works awful hard in the off-season to get to this point, to play at the level he wants to play (and) keeps having setbacks. Obviously, the game of baseball will give you some adversity in different phases. If there's anybody that can handle that, it's him."
If you had forgotten:
In 2021, Jung underwent surgery for a stress fracture in his foot and didn't play until mid-June.
In 2022, he underwent surgery for a torn labrum in his left shoulder and didn't play until late July. He hurt the shoulder lifting weights.
In 2023, Jung suffered a broken left thumb catching Jorge Soler's hot shot to third base at Globe Life Field. That sidelined him from Aug. 7 through Sept. 17. The weeks Jung missed during the pennant race crippled his case for American League rookie of the year. He'd been rookie of the month in April and May.
At least Jung came back on Sept. 18 and played well down the stretch. He started and contributed to the Rangers' first World Series championship.
Having batted .266 last season with 23 homers and 70 RBI, Jung was expected to take off this year. Still is. None of these injuries he's suffered are anything with lasting effects.
He just has to bide his time for another chunk of another season.
As I was monitoring the Texas Tech baseball game Monday night, someone sent me a text: "Josh Jung out for at least a month. Fractured right wrist."
Aware Jung had homered and singled twice, knowing this was April 1, I immediately texted back: "April fool."
If only.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Can the Texas Rangers' Josh Jung buy some good luck for a change?
