DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - As of this very moment on Feb. 24, the top prospect in the Rangers organization is very unlikely to make the club's opening day roster.
That prospect, of course, is third baseman Josh Jung.
Jung spent the 2020 season playing intrasquad games with the Rangers taxi squad due to the minor league seasons being wiped out because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For his career, Jung has just 174 at-bats, all of which came at the low levels of the minor leagues, since being selected by the Rangers in the first round of the 2019 draft out of Texas Tech.
Fast forward to this year's spring training and Jung finds himself in big-league camp.
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Jung has a clear path to the starting job at third base when he's ready. The Rangers currently have Charlie Culberson and Brock Holt, who are both on minor-league deals, competing for the job in camp. But the question remains ... when will Jung be ready?
Rangers manager Chris Woodward told the media recently that he doesn't envision the 23-year-old making the opening day roster.
“I don’t want to even say out loud what it would take for that to happen, but I think probably not,” Woodward said, via the Dallas Morning News. “I obviously want to have him on our team at some point. I’m not saying we are planning on that because he’s got to earn it. But if everything goes as we kind of anticipate, there’s a good chance he might be with us at some point.”
Assistant general manager Mike Daly, who oversees player development for the organization, also weighed in recently, saying that Jung will likely open the year with Triple-A Round Rock because the club wants him to play as much as possible.
Which brings us to Jung and his approach to getting up to the bigs.
"I'm just grateful for the opportunity to be in this position. ... Having this opportunity, being able to go out everyday to try and prove myself, is motivation in itself, to go out there and play the best baseball I can. I'd say my only focus right now is when I do get opportunities in game, in practice, go out there and play the best baseball I can," Jung said Wednesday. "Getting on the big league roster is not in my control, at all. I'm just letting those guys take care of that decision, and I just play the best baseball I can and try and force them to make that decision."
Jung will get his first opportunity to show the Rangers what he can do against big-league pitching when spring training games begin this weekend.