Josh Jung has gone from an emerging young star to fragile presence for the Rangers

Feels like it wasn't that long ago Josh Jung finished fourth place in the American League Rookie of the Year voting and cemented himself as a hopeful young face of the Texas Rangers for the next half decade.

However, he has been beaten down over the course of his big league career with injuries and in turn have transformed him into something the Rangers didn't want to happen. An injury prone liability of a first round pick.

Already on thin ice, Jung's spring injury is a massive blow

While Jung has always faced injuries, even dating back to his college days, he's been able to overcome with a unmatched level of production that made him the eighth overall draft pick in 2019, an All-Star and a World Series champion.

Last season was a different tune though. While he did get hurt and spend some time on the IL but it was his lack of productivity that was the story of his 2025 season and the reason he entered spring training with a massive chip on his shoulder.

Only appearing in three games this spring, to the tune of six at-bats, the 28-year-old is now officially sidelined for at least 10 days with a Grade 1 abductor strain. Not a good start to an important fifth year for the third baseman.

Since he made his debut in the back half of the 2022 season, Jung has been placed on the IL seven times. His first was a hand injury in July 2023, missed most of 2024 after being hit by a pitch and experienced neck, hand and calf injuries last year.

While everybody is switching off and not playing back-to-back days this early in the spring, manager Skip Schumaker has turned to a combination of Ezequiel Duran and Jonah Bride at the hot corner.

While Jung is a 2026 bounceback candidate, he could be replaced

Speaking of Duran and Bride, these could be the frontrunners to take Jung's place if he was unable to get back on the field and into playing shape by the time Texas starts the regular season in Philadelphia later this month.

He does enter 2026 with a bit of good news, seen on multiple fronts as a possible bounce back candidate whether it be from local media or national writers placing their bets on the former Texas Tech Red Raider.

Those predictions don't carry any weight within the organization, although Schumaker is a believer in Jung saying at the December Winter Meetings, "I want him to be feared once again."

Jung does get a bit of a sigh of relief as Cody Freeman is also experiencing injury issues and he'd the leading candidate to swoop up Jung's job if he was unable to get back on the field come Opening Day. While we still have a long way to go from there, Jung's injury is a bad sign to getting him back to "being feared once again."