{"id":148005,"date":"2025-07-03T02:44:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T02:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/148005\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T02:44:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T02:44:15","slug":"how-the-rangers-optioning-josh-jung-could-benefit-both-him-and-the-team-moving-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/148005\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Rangers optioning Josh Jung could benefit both him and the team moving forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON \u2014 To be clear, Texas Rangers<\/a> president of baseball operations Chris Young<\/a> said Wednesday afternoon, there\u2019s no pleasure in this part of the job. <\/p>\n

Young, a big-league pitcher for more than a decade, doesn\u2019t revel in the enforcement required to elicit the best out of each individual and a collective team. Yes, the Rangers must operate on a performance-first basis from here on out. No, the moves made based upon that philosophy are not done callously. <\/p>\n

\u201cI care about these guys,\u201d Young said Wednesday. \u201cThese are very tough decisions, especially when these are players that we care about immensely.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rangers do indeed care about third baseman Josh Jung<\/a> immensely. <\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

That in it of itself delineates the path they\u2019ve chosen to take. <\/p>\n

The Rangers optioned Jung, a former first-round pick and All-Star starter, to Triple-A Round Rock before Wednesday\u2019s 6-0 win vs. the Baltimore Orioles after his month-long skid that showed few signs of a turnaround. <\/p>\n

The 27-year-old slashed .158\/.208\/.221 with 27 strikeouts to 5 walks and June and didn\u2019t respond in any meaningful way to the two-day break that the Rangers gave him last week. The Rangers concluded that a minor league assignment was both the last and best option for Jung to find a window of improvement. That, in turn, is the best option for the Rangers, too. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf he gets right,\u201d Rangers manager Bruce Bochy<\/a> said, \u201che\u2019s going to make us a better club.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hope is that Jung will not need to spend significant time in the minor leagues, according to Bochy, though his performance and progress will dictate that. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to do it up here,\u201d Bochy said. \u201cWe want him to go down in a situation where it\u2019s maybe a little more relaxed and he can work on some things whether it\u2019s mechanics or on the mental side and get right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The transaction is twofold and, from Young\u2019s perspective, will ideally benefit both the major league club in the and Jung himself. The Rangers started Wednesday\u2019s game vs. the Baltimore Orioles at Globe Life Field with a nine-and-a-half game deficit in the American League West and an offense that \u2014 despite some recent signs of life \u2014 ranked bottom five leaguewide in batting average (.228), on base percentage (.296) and slugging percentage (.366). <\/p>\n

Jung, whose .429 OPS since June 1 was the second-worst among all qualified hitters leaguewide, had become a deterrent to wholesale offensive improvement with a worrisome swing-and-miss profile that carried a penchant for high-and-inside fastballs. <\/p>\n

His demotion will allow the Rangers to play the hottest eligible bat at third base whilst they begin a critical month that will all but decide the trajectory of their season. They started Ezequiel Duran at third base Wednesday and were rewarded with a two-out, two-run single from him in the fourth inning. Super utility man Josh Smith \u2014 whose .768 OPS is the highest among qualified Texas hitters \u2014 could likely see extended time at the position as well. Bochy said that performance will ultimately determine the lineup card. <\/p>\n

It determined Jung\u2019s immediate future too. In an extra-innings-laden series loss vs. the Seattle Mariners, a divisional opponent that the Rangers will all but surely need to leapfrog in the standings, he went 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position and made an inning-ending out seven different times. He went 0 for 5 with two strikeouts in Monday\u2019s loss vs. the Orioles and didn\u2019t start Tuesday\u2019s game<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Jung called June the \u201cworst [month] ever\u201d and acknowledged that \u201cit\u2019s just me versus me right now\u201d before Monday\u2019s game. The San Antonio native attempted to take on a larger leadership role this spring and is amongst the Rangers\u2019 most candid players. <\/p>\n

He is also keenly aware of his own setbacks \u2014 including multiple extended injury-induced absences in his first three big league seasons \u2014 and struggles. Young said Wednesday that \u201cit\u2019s really hard\u201d for players to dig out of slumps when they are as conscious of them as Jung has been. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe brings an energy everyday and, really, through these struggles, he\u2019s done his best to maintain that positive energy,\u201d Young said. \u201cYou can start to see it in their eyes. It\u2019s hard. I speak from my own personal experience, it\u2019s really hard when you feel like you\u2019re letting the team down. But we\u2019ll get him back and we\u2019ll get him playing at the level we know he can play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The belief is that the low-pressure minor league setting will provide Jung an opportunity to both clear his head and rediscover his swing in a far more friendly setting than the major leagues. Texas made a similar move earlier this season when it optioned first baseman Jake Burger to Triple-A Round Rock<\/a> after his slow start. <\/p>\n

Related:Texas Rangers activate Jake Burger from 10-day IL after Josh Jung\u2019s demotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Burger, who returned from an oblique strain Wednesday, posted a .561 OPS in his first 30 games this season. But, in the 35 games since his 10-day minor league stint designed to reset both his physical and mental approach, he\u2019s yielded a .725 OPS.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the type of player he is and know the type of player he wants to be on a daily basis,\u201d Burger said of Jung. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to take it with a positive attitude. Hopefully it\u2019s a quick stay down there. Get right, get your head right and come back up. This ballclub needs him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rangers do, by all statistical accounts, need Jung at his best. They went 95-73 with Jung in the lineup from 2023-24. He slashed .265\/.310\/.454 with 30 home runs in those two years but, because of both a broken thumb and broken wrist, was limited to just 168 games. <\/p>\n

His absences were felt on each occasion that he missed significant time. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been this season too. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s so important to us,\u201d Young said, \u201cand the main goal is to get him right.\u201d<\/p>\n

How far is Rangers\u2019 teenage phenom Sebastian Walcott from top of the prospect rankings?<\/a>Rangers vs. Tigers on July 20 selected for ESPN\u2019s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON \u2014 To be clear, Texas Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young said Wednesday afternoon, there\u2019s no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[4805,5,3321,3246,400,395,4,149,185,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-148005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-bruce-bochy","11":"tag-chris-young","12":"tag-jake-burger","13":"tag-josh-jung","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-rangers","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-texas-rangers","19":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114787009635551343","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}