Bret Boone’s arrival may have unlocked this Rangers slugger

While the Texas Rangers’ winning streak is over, it’s hard to argue that the club isn’t back in the thick of the pennant race. It’s also not hard to pinpoint when this run back into contention started. If we judge the season pre-Bret Boone and post-Donnie Ecker, it’s impossible not to see a much more positive trajectory. And Josh Jung might be one of the players who best demonstrates where the season might be going from here on out.

Is it realistic to credit a new hitting coach for a player’s turnaround when they’ve only been in the job for a little over 10 days? Not usually, but the thing about Bret Boone’s arrival is that most analysts agreed his most significant impact wasn’t tweaking stances or swings, but just getting Rangers players to change how they think and approach at-bats. 

Josh Jung’s breakout under Bret Boone signals brighter days for the Texas Rangers offense

It’s important to remember that at the beginning of April, Texas Rangers fans already worried about Josh Jung’s rough start. Now, in the middle of May, no player has shown more improvement in the Bret Boone era than the star third baseman.

It’s not even that Jung was struggling all the way up to the Ecker era. After a rough start to the season, Jung’s slashline was a perfectly respectable .274/.310/.411/.721. He had 2 home runs and 8 RBI when the former Rangers’ offensive coordinator was handed his walking papers.

However, Jung has exploded since Ecker was shown the door and Boone was brought in. He’s posted a .333/.366/.744/1.109 slash line and an OPS that tops the team among players getting more than 14 PAs in the last 10 days. 

The star third baseman has turned back into the power hitter that he showed off in 2023 when he blasted 23 homers in his first full season in the Bigs. Jung has 5 home runs since Bret Boone arrived earlier this month and has drilled a double for good measure. 

His only 9 RBIs are far more a symptom of an offense that still needs to improve. 

It is possible that Jung is just on a hot streak or has finally locked in after a month and a half of getting his feet underneath him. But it’s hard not to notice how much more confident he looks at the plate since the Texas Rangers made the move specifically to give the offense a boost.