Detroit Tigers Rookie Infielder Talks About Fighting Through Wrist Injury

This Detroit Tigers rookie is healed up now, but a midseason injury caused him to play with pain during the team’s playoff push.
Detroit Tigers second base Jace Jung (17) walks off the field after struck out against Tampa Bay Rays during the seventh inning at Comerica Park in Detroit on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024.
Detroit Tigers second base Jace Jung (17) walks off the field after struck out against Tampa Bay Rays during the seventh inning at Comerica Park in Detroit on Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. / Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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The Detroit Tigers have a lot invested in Jace Jung, who is penciled in as their starting third baseman for the 2025 season.

The Tigers called him up on Aug. 16 from Triple-A Toledo as they were just beginning their surge toward ending their 10-year playoff drought. Jung hit the ground running, playing the hot corner — like his big brother Josh with the Texas Rangers — and helped the Tigers achieve postseason success.

Detroit won its first playoff series against Houston in the AL Wild Card Series before losing a tough AL Division Series against Cleveland.

But it wasn’t all sunshine in his first stretch of Major League ball. In June, he suffered a right wrist injury and spent time on Toledo’s 7-day injured list. He returned on July 9, more than a month before his call-up.

But, as the season went on, he wasn’t exactly healed, as he told MLB.com recently.

“I was kind of fighting it, honestly,” he said. “I just wanted to help the team win any way possible, so I was doing treatment, I was doing all this kind of stuff just to be able to be in the lineup with the guys, to help them win.”

Turns out the injury was severe enough for Jung to require offseason surgery. He recently returned to Detroit for a mini-camp for young hitters and said he felt “phenomenal.”

“They said we could wait until the end of the season to get surgery and fix it, and then I kind of just played through it,” he said. “At the end of the season, everybody kind of knew that I was going to have to go and do it, so we just went and did it and got it over with.”

Even with the wrist injury, Jung is off to a solid start in the Majors. He slashed .241/.362/.304/.665 in 34 games and played third base after the Tigers called him up.

Jung was Detroit’s first-round pick in the 2022 MLB draft and he quickly worked his way through the system to earn his MLB debut last year. He’s part of a cadre of young players that have made their way through the Detroit system.

That includes pitcher Jackson Jobe, who is the Tigers’ highest-rated prospect and make his MLB debut late in the season and, like Jung, earned a spot on the postseason roster.


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