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The 2024 season has long been a lost one for the Texas Rangers. Their title defense could not have gone worse if they tried, as a plethora of injury woes combined with major underperformance from their best hitters have tanked their efforts to put up an encore worthy of their World Series title last year. As if things couldn't get any worse, the Rangers got a dispiriting injury update on Josh Jung, who has simply endured a nightmare 2024 campaign.
Jung, who has only played in 46 games this year, will be “shut down for a couple days” due to “discomfort” in his wrist near the surgical site, as per Kennedi Landry of MLB.com. Per Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, via Abby Jones of DLLS Sports, Jung is still experiencing stiffness in his wrist and that the “vibration from the bat seems to still be bothering his hand”.
There remains inflammation in Jung's wrist, which puts his playing status over the Rangers' remaining two games against the Seattle Mariners over the weekend in doubt. On Monday, Jung will be visiting his surgeon in Arizona with the hope of playing in the team's season-ending road trip.
Jung was a major producer for the Rangers last year, so for him to endure an injury-ravaged 2024 season has put a major dent in the team's hopes of repeating as champion. He put up an impressive .266/.315/.467 slash line in 2023 to go along with 23 home runs and 70 runs batted in, and his contributions were worth 2.7 WAR — found money for a Rangers team that was firing on all cylinders.
He then followed it up with an even more impressive .308/.329/.538 slash line in the postseason, and he hit three dingers and drove in eight runs as he played a huge part in winning the Rangers franchise its first World Series title.
Alas, injury problems have prevented Jung from contributing much of anything in 2024. He missed nearly four months of action after fracturing his wrist in early April, and his performances since returning haven't matched the levels he reached last year whatsoever.
With nothing to play for anymore this season, don't be too surprised if the Rangers play it safe with Jung, especially when he's looked at as someone with a long-term future with the franchise.
Rangers experience Murphy's Law in disappointing World Series defense
It looked as though the Rangers have built for themselves a sustainable contending team. They have two legitimate stars in the middle of the diamond, with Corey Seager and Marcus Semien arguably being the best second base-shortstop duo in the entire MLB, while they had cost-controlled quality young players across multiple positions.
However, Jung's early-season injury proved to be a portent of the disaster that was to come for the Rangers in their title defense. A lot of their key players have underperformed relative to their 2023 levels, and the team's offense has floundered as a result.
Adolis Garcia, one of the main contributors in the team's World Series run, has, quite frankly, been dreadful this season. Per Fangraphs, he has been worth -0.4 WAR this season — a startling turn of events for someone who tore up the opposition in last year's playoffs.
Jonah Heim has come crashing down to earth as well; coming off a 4.0 WAR tally in 2023, Heim's hitting prowess has deserted him, and defensive metrics don't rate him as highly as they did last year, and now, his contributions have been worth -0.3 WAR.
This level of decline from crucial everyday players isn't something any team could overcome, and the Rangers have fallen off a cliff as a result.
