Josh Jung’s Surge After Injury Shows Rangers His Improvement is For Real

Whether the Texas Rangers make the playoffs or not, their third baseman answered more questions about his future in September.

Texas Rangers third baseman Josh Jung. Credit: Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Before his calf injury in late July, Texas Rangers third baseman Josh Jung was the best hitter on the team. That's with all apologies to Ezequiel Duran, who has had a fantastic season.

But after a small slump to begin 2026, Jung emerged as Texas’ most consistent hitter up until his injury. He missed more than a month recovering from the left calf strain, longer than Texas had hoped. When he returned on Sept. 12 the only question was whether he could pick up where he left off?

Well, he’s done better than that. Whether the Rangers make the playoffs or not, Jung has shown Texas that the improvements he made starting in spring training have stuck and should be durable come next season.

Josh Jung Since His Return

Forever Jung. #AllForTX pic.twitter.com/PkdOdreiKO

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) September 24, 2026

Jung has played in every game since his return and has 11 games in September. As the Rangers (79-80) start their final series of the regular season on Friday against the Minnesota Twins the Texas Tech product is slashing .341/.383/.636 with three home runs and seven RBI in September.

When he headed to the IL, he was slashing .294/.361/.441. So the consistency that he built over the first four months of the season remained intact.

Consistency has been an issue for Jung at times in his career. It came to a head last season when he slashed .251/.294/.390 in 131 games with 14 home runs and 61 RBI. But, in the middle of the season, the 2023 World Series champion was optioned to Triple-A Round Rock for more than two weeks to work on his swing, which at the time was struggling.

That led to him and the Rangers’ hitting staff reworking his swing and his approach in the offseason. Texas de-emphasized slugging and put a higher priority on getting players on base and getting them to do different things at the plate. Jung was dangerously close to becoming a three-outcome hitter in 2025.

After his mini-slump to start the season — brought on in part by an adductor injury during spring training — the change in approach became clear during a road trip out west. Pitches that he would have tried to pull in 2025 became gap shots to the opposite field in 2026. His average picked up and so did his on-base percentage. His .363 OBP will be a career high for him.

That's the transition that Jung has made this season, from power hitter to an all-field hitter that can still hit for power. He doesn't need to drive the baseball out of the park to generate offense. He just needs to get it in play. The reset has shown the Rangers that the new approach can work for players that were part of the organization in 2023. Jung’s return from injury proves that the reset has stuck.