Josh Jung

Jung attended Douglas MacArthur High School in San Antonio, Texas where he played baseball[1] and football.[2] Undrafted out of high school in the 2016 MLB draft, he enrolled at Texas Tech University to play college baseball for the Red Raiders.

In 2017, as a freshman at Texas Tech, Jung started all 62 games at third base, batting .306 with six home runs and 43 RBIs.[3] He was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year[4] and was named a Freshman All-American by multiple outlets including Collegiate Baseball[5] and Perfect Game/Rawlings.[6] He was also named to the All-Big 12 Freshman Team and the All-Big 12 Second Team.[7] That summer, he played in the California Collegiate League[8] where he hit .368 with two home runs, 31 RBIs, and a .454 on-base percentage over 117 at-bats.[9] As a sophomore in 2018, Jung once again started all 65 of Texas Tech's games at third base, slashing .392/.491/.639 with 12 home runs and 80 RBIs.[10] He was named to the All-Big 12 First Team,[11] and was once again named an All-American by outlets such as Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball.[12][13][14] He played for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team that summer.[15]

Jung was named a preseason All-American by Perfect Game, Baseball America, D1Baseball.com, and Collegiate Baseball prior to his junior year.[16] During the season, he missed two games due to a quadricep strain, ending his streak of 139 consecutive starts.[17] After returning, he moved to shortstop.[18] He was named the 2019 Big 12 Co-Player of the Year (along with Baylor's Davis Wendzel) after batting .333 with nine home runs and 49 RBIs through 49 games.[19] He was named an All-American by Baseball America, D1Baseball.com, Perfect Game, ABCA, and NCBWA.[20][21][22] Jung was the recipient of the 2019 Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award, which honors the top Division I baseball player within Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma each season.[23] Jung finished his junior year slashing .343/.474/.636 with 15 home runs and 58 RBIs in 64 games.[24]

Considered one of the top prospects for the 2019 MLB draft,[25] he was selected by the Texas Rangers in the first round, with the eighth overall pick.[26]

On July 3, 2019, Jung signed with the Rangers for a $4.4 million signing bonus.[27] On July 10, 2019, Jung made his professional debut with the Arizona League Rangers of the Rookie-level Arizona League, hitting a home run in his first professional at-bat.[28] On July 15, Jung was promoted to the Hickory Crawdads of the Class A South Atlantic League,[29] and hit .287/.363/.389/.752 with one home run and 23 RBIs over 40 games for them.