A day after fracturing his right wrist, Texas Rangers third baseman Josh Jung was placed on the 10-day injured list Tuesday.
To replace the 26-year-old Jung on the active roster, Texas recalled infield prospect Justin Foscue from Triple-A Round Rock.
Jung, who was 3-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs in Monday’s 9-3 road win over the Tampa Bay Rays, swung at a 2-1 sinker that struck his wrist/forearm. He was replaced by Josh Smith, who finished the at-bat.
“I just feel horrible for him,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said of Jung in a postgame interview. “He’s had such tough luck on this thing as far as the injuries and it puts a damper on this one. … He’ll be back.”
Jung finished fourth in American League Rookie of the Year voting last season and may have finished higher had he not missed 40 games, most of them because of a fractured thumb. An All-Star in 2023, Jung finished the season with a .266/.315/.467 slash line, hitting 23 home runs, driving in 70 runs and scoring 75.
Jung batted .308 with three home runs, eight RBIs and 13 runs in 17 playoff games in the Rangers’ run to the World Series last season.
Starting his second full season with Texas, Jung was on a tear in the early going, batting .412 with a 1.415 OPS at the time of his injury. He has two home runs and six RBIs.
Foscue, 25, is a career .275 hitter in the minors with 50 home runs and 218 RBIs in 288 games. He is ranked as the No. 5 overall prospect in the Texas system by MLB Pipeline.
He has yet to make an appearance in the major leagues. In three games at Round Rock this season, the 2020 first-round pick went 3-for-13 (.231) with two RBIs.
The defending World Series champion Rangers (3-1) continue their series against the host Rays on Tuesday.
–Field Level Media
