“I feel for the kid” - Rangers manager Bruce Bochy breaks news on Josh Jung’s fractured wrist

Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy shared his sympathy for third baseman Josh Jung who suffered a fractured wrist after taking a fastball in the ninth.

The Rangers recorded a 9-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday to take their season record to 3-1 but will lose their third baseman for the near future. Jung was hit by pitch in the wrist by Rays reliever Phil Maton and had to leave in the middle of the game. Bochy gave an update on the situation:

“He’ll be back. I talked to him briefly, you know this hurts. I feel for the kid because he’s had to deal with so much on injuries. It’s gonna be a little while, but he’ll be back.”

Josh Jung was selected by the Texas Rangers as one of the top prospects in the 2019 MLB Draft. He went on to make his major league debut for them in the second half of the 2022 season.

The infielder started strong in 2023, winning the Rookie of the Month award and making the All-Stars in his first full season in the majors. He played a key role in their march to the World Series last year and is one of the most exciting young players in the country.

Expectations were high for Jung coming into 2024, having made a strong impression in 2023. However, in just the fourth game of the season, he has found himself in his first major setback of the year: a fractured wrist after a hit by a fastball.

The exact extent of the injury is unclear, and Bochy doesn'y have a clear picture of how long Jung will need to recover, but we should hear more on the same in the coming days.

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Rays reliever Phil Maton throws three consecutive hit by pitch, resulting in Josh Jung injury

While Josh Jung was the only Texas Rangers player to suffer an injury from a Phil Maton fastball, he was not the first to be hit by pitch by the Tampa Bay Rays reliever.

Maton, who took the mound for the Rays in the ninth inning, first hit Evan Carter with a pitch, followed by Adolis Garcia, which left the slugger visibly frustrated. While the first two hit-by pitches got both batters to base, the third one on Jung was called a strike.