Sad sign of a busted season: Texas Rangers send World Series star hitter to AAA
One of the biggest reasons why the Texas Rangers won their first and only World Series was sent to the minors to find a swing that has been missing since 2024.
In a cruel irony, third baseman Josh Jung is healthy but now he can’t hit.
On Wednesday before the Rangers hosted the Baltimore Orioles at Globe Life Mall, the team announced that Jung was optioned to Triple A Round Rock. This was the team’s final home date before a 10-game road trip, and the All-Star break. Their next home game is July 18.
Maybe by then Jung will have found what made him a star a Texas Tech, the eighth pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, and a major factor in the Rangers’ winning the World Series.
Jung’s replacement on Wednesday night was Ezequiel Duran, he of the gaudy .145 batting average, who batted ninth. When your starting third baseman is ninth in the batting order, that’s a problem.
The Rangers are not going to win much if their third baseman is their nine-hole hitter.
Josh Jung’s rise to fall
If you happened to watch any of the Rangers’ run to the 2023 World Series title, Jung being moved to the minors in July of 2025 ranks next to Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Adolis Garcia’s collective collapse.
Jung is not the only hitter in this lineup who isn’t hitting, but he has “options” left. Rangers GM Chris Young pushed this button to see if it lights up. Nothing else is.
Even if the move isn’t surprising, it is depressing. Jung is 27, in his fourth season as a big leaguer. This is not supposed to happen.
“I think it’s fair to say he’s been going through some struggles here, these past three, four weeks. The best thing right now for Josh and this club is to let him get some at-bats with Round Rock, get his game back, his confidence back. We need him,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said before the game.
Entering this season the only concerns that anyone had about Jung wasn’t his ability to hit or field but whether he could stay healthy long enough to be an All-Star. We are almost at the All-Star break, and Jung has been healthy for the longest stretch of his time with the Rangers.
He’s played in 75 games this season, the second most in his four years with the big league club. It’s not great when your best offensive stat is “Games Played.”
When he broke into the majors in 2022, the big concern was a swing that looked a little “long.” In his first full season, in 2023, that issue was a non-issue. He made the All-Star team, hit 25 doubles, 23 home runs, and provided a Gold Glove caliber at third base.
In the playoffs, he was just as dynamic batting .308 with .538 slugging percentage.
Last season, injuries limited him to only 46 games. This season, he hasn’t looked like Josh Jung. He looks like another Rangers hitter desperately trying to hit, and 10 miles into his own head.
Josh Jung’s future
Watching Jung this season has been a chore. Not because of what he did for the Rangers in 2023, but this is a good guy. Jung is a pro’ who cares.
Jung is not some Anthony Rendon type, the Angels third baseman who projects the image that the only reason he plays baseball is because of the money.
“When a guy gets a little lost at the plate, I think that’s fair to say, because he’s expanding more than we’ve ever seen. It’s obvious he’s not quite seeing the ball as well, and (has) things to work on, it’s tough to do it up here,” Bochy said. “We want him to go down in a situation where he may be a little bit more relaxed and he can work on some things, whether it’s mechanics or on the mental side, and get right. If he gets right, he’s going to make us a better club.
The Rangers made a similar move in early May with designated hitter Jake Burger when the veteran was off to a terrible start. Burger’s minor league stint lasted seven games and 30 plate appearances. He smashed minor league pitching, and the Rangers brought him back.
Since returning to the big league club, Burger has been better.
That is the minimum hope for Josh Jung. But they need Jung to be better than Burger.
The Rangers aren’t going to win a thing when their third baseman is their nine-hole hitter batting .145.
This story was originally published July 2, 2025 at 7:25 PM.
