Rangers News: Adolis Garcia, Josh Jung and Max Scherzer injury updates

One of the few downsides of winning a World Series is the limited time players are given to get healthy and recover from injury before returning to baseball activities.

The Texas Rangers are currently dealing with this, with several players absent from spring training games due to nagging and long-term injuries. With spring training almost halfway over, the front office hopes that some players currently on the IL can make at least a few appearances in the preseason and that others will be healthy enough to play once the team returns to Arlington in a few weeks. 

One player in particular who remains a question for the Rangers is star right fielder Adolis Garcia. Garcia, who turned 31 earlier this week, was dealing with several lingering injuries during the final few weeks of the regular season and throughout the postseason. He eventually strained his right oblique and was forced to miss the final two World Series contests.

Going into the 2024 season, Garcia is still dealing with lingering injuries from last season, and the Rangers have been treating him with caution. He's been inactive for most of spring and the Rangers are trying to determine when exactly he will be able to return to the lineup. Garcia is scheduled to play in the Rangers "B" game on Tuesday afternoon and could make his Cactus League debut Wednesday.

Hopefully, Garcia can overcome these injuries and put up a similar campaign to the one he did last season. The Rangers will need strong contributions from him to start the season, especially with Corey Seager and Josh Jung still out.

Speaking of Jung, the young slugger is looking forward to starting his second full season with the Rangers after a stellar rookie campaign. Similar to Garcia, Jung has been dealing with nagging injuries since the beginning of spring. He suffered a calf spring upon arrival to Arizona and has bee sidelined ever since.

This week, Bruce Bochy said Jung has started baseball activities, and it was reported that he will be serving as a DH until he's 100% healthy. For now, Jung will serve as a hitter in some minor-league games before joining Cactus League play.

As for Seager, the star shortstop caught the flu and his recovery has been thrown off a bit, but it's believed he's healing well from his sports hernia surgery and could play in a game before spring training ends.

One player on the roster dealing with a more severe injury is veteran pitcher Max Scherzer, who was hobbled for the majority of his time with the Rangers last season. He only started eight games before going on the IL but was able to return for part of the postseason and contribute to the Rangers' World Series victory. 

Scherzer spent this past offseason looking to get healthy and hoping to make a quick return back to the team. He underwent back surgery this past December to recover from a herniated disk that forced him to sit out parts of last season. 

It has recently been reported Scherzer may be able to return quicker than he and the team were anticipating. Bochy updated the media earlier this week on Scherzer's health: "With Max, we are now looking at June. That's a little bit earlier than we thought."

If Scherzer can return to the roster by then, it would be a huge boost for the Rangers' pitching staff, which will be without Scherzer and Jacob deGrom to start the season. Jordan Montgomery doesn't look like he'll be returning anytime soon, either.

Overall, the Rangers have received pretty positive news this past week on the progress of their injured players. Hopefully, the Rangers can put all these nagging injuries behind them and start the new season off with a semblance of their World Series winning roster.