Jung was an All-Star in 2023 and finished the year fourth in the AL Rookie of the Year race. But as is often the case in this sport, Jung’s career path hasn’t been linear.
He would miss a large portion of 2024 with injuries, and then in 2025, although he played most of the season, there were nagging injuries and mental struggles that hampered his performance.
Jung by the Numbers
Baseball is a numbers game, and Jung has been putting up some massive ones in 2026. But it didn’t start that way.
Through the first eight games of the year, Jung was hitting only .138/.167/.138. Eventually, after his struggles last year and his ice-cold start to this season, Jung found his name written into the ninth spot on Skip Schumaker’s lineup card. In fact, one of my friends quipped that if there was a 10th spot in the order, that is where Jung would be.
But then something clicked, and Jung started hitting. And he has kept hitting, showing no signs of slowing down. Through games on May 12, Jung is slashing .320/.369/.503, with 12 doubles, five home runs, 18 runs scored, 20 RBI, and a 146 wRC+.
The average and the doubles stand out the most. All of last season, Jung only had 23 doubles. He has always used the whole field, but he is driving the ball gap to gap at a higher pace this season. A career .262 hitter, Jung is stacking quality at-bats and is giving away fewer.
A big reason for his success this season has been a drastic reduction in strikeout rate. Last year, Jung’s K% was 25.2%, and over his career, it is 26.6%. This season, it is only 15.6%.
He has been laying off pitches out of the zone and making pitchers come to him. Instead of beating himself, he is making the pitchers work and capitalizing on any mistakes that they might make.