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\u2019s career path hasn\u2019t been linear.<\/p>\n
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<\/a> that hampered his performance.<\/p>\n Jung by the Numbers<\/p>\n Baseball is a numbers game, and Jung has been putting up some massive ones in 2026. But it didn\u2019t start that way.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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+.<\/p>\n