Inside The Rangers

Watch: Rangers Prospect Josh Jung Goes Deep Again for Round Rock

Texas' No. 1 prospect is making his case for a call-up from the Triple-A Express.

Matthew Postins

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The Texas Rangers No. 1 prospect Josh Jung hit his sixth home run in 12 games with the Triple-A Round Rock Express on Wednesday night against Albuquerque.

Jung, the Rangers’ 2019 first-round pick, has been tearing up Triple-A pitching since joining the Express after a stint at the Arizona Complex League. He is coming off surgery for a torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder that required surgery during spring training.

The home run came in the Express’ 9-5 win over the Isotopes.

There’s no indication that the Rangers are interested in calling Jung up right now, even after the franchise cleaned house last week by firing manager Chris Woodward and team president of baseball operations Jon Daniels.

But Jung is building a strong case. With Round Rock he is now batting .340/.400/.800/1.200 with six home runs and 19 RBI in just 50 at-bats. He was coming off an eight-game stint with the ACL Rangers in which he batted .240/.345/.600/.945 with three home runs and five RBI in eight games and 25 at-bats.

In 20 minor-league games entering Thursday he’s batting .307/.381/.733/1.114 with nine home runs and 25 RBI in just 75 at-bats.

The Texas Tech product is in his fourth minor league season. Aside from the COVID-19 wipe out of 2020 minor league baseball, Jung has also missed part of his 2021 season with a stress fracture in his foot. At 24, it’s fair for the Rangers to see what they have in their No. 1 prospect. The clock is also ticking on the potential for a Rule 5 Draft in the offseason. That’s important because if Jung isn’t on the 40-man roster, he could be exposed to other teams.

Jung and his younger brother Jace are the first siblings in the history of MLB.com’s prospect rankings to be in the Top 100 at the same time.

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Matthew Postins
MATTHEW POSTINS

Matthew Postins is an award-winning sports journalist who covers the Texas Rangers for Fan Nation/SI and also writes about the Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies. He also covers the Big 12 for HeartlandCollegeSports.com.

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