After winning seven of eight, the Rangers are finally back to .500. It helped that they swept the lowly Chicago White Sox in three very tight games. The offense that had come alive earlier in the week wasn’t there for the White Sox Series, but the Rangers scored just enough to win all three.

Josh Smith was named American League Player of the Week by hitting .422 with two home runs. But lost in this offensive resurgence are the struggles of the other Josh. Josh Jung.

In his last fourteen days, he’s hitting just .146 with an OPS that can generously be called pathetic: .434. This is the kind of offense they created the Designated Hitter for. In the last two weeks, Jung has had just two doubles, no homers, and driven in just four runs. 

Really, since his monster first half in 2023, he’s been just average. When he got hurt in early August of 2023, Jung was batting .274, with an OPS of .813. After he got back in September, he hit just .208 with a .547 OPS. A lot of that was chalked up to coming back from a broken thumb. 

He started out 2024 on fire, hitting .412 through his first four games. Then a bad pitch broke his wrist. But, he hit just .248 when he came back, with just a .645 OPS. A lot of that was chalked up to coming back from a broken wrist.

This year, he doesn’t have an injury to hide behind. He’s hitting only .253 for the season, with an on-base percentage of just .305, and an OPS of .698. Only Luis Rengifo of the Angels is worse in the AL.

So, who is Josh Jung? Is he a defense-first third baseman? There’s nothing wrong with that. But that’s not how he’s been sold.

Maybe he’s not the offensive threat the Rangers were hoping he’d be. His career OPS+ is 106, which means he is slightly above average offensively. And that’s including his breakout 2023.

If the rest of the Rangers lineup hits like it’s supposed to, and capable of, it can get by with a Gold Glove-level third baseman. But third has become a position of production int he big leagues, and Josh Jung has not been that.

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