Rangers draft Texas Tech third baseman Josh Jung, signaling a change in philosophy — or did it? By Jamey Newberg In the first 54 years of the MLB amateur draft, Texas Tech produced only one first-round pick. The program’s second such player was selected last night —and, just like the first time, it was the Rangers who made the pick. Josh Jung is about as different a player from Donald Harris as he can be, though, and the contrast perhaps illustrates a shift in draft-day thinking and approach for Texas. Or, perhaps it doesn’t at all. The Rangers, drafting eighth overall last night and again at picks 41 and 50, took three college players who wouldn’t be characterized as low-floor/high-ceiling projection plays like Harris, a two-sport player for the Red Raiders, or some of the high school players the Rangers have made a habit of targeting. In Jung (pronounced “Young”), Baylor third baseman Davis Wendzel (who earned Co-Big 12 Player of the Year honors with Jung this season) and UCLA righthander Ryan Garcia, the club that has been the most prolific investor in high school talent in recent years gravitated toward the college crop with its picks in Rounds 1 and 2 via three players who might be described as more predictable than projectable. Texas drafted Harris fifth overall in 1989, forgoing the opportunity to draft the more proven but less tooled-up Frank Thomas, who went to the White Sox two slots later. Last night’s selection of Jung in particular has the opposite look; his run tool is suspect and though he played shortstop out of need for Texas Tech for part of this season, he’s likely confined defensively to a corner. Arizona State’s Hunter Bishop boasted louder tools while Washington high school outfielder Corbin Carroll offered plus speed, up-the-middle defense and a promising hit tool to dream on, but Jung presented a more complete package in the Rangers’ eyes. “We went through a process where we spend probably 12 days in that room as a group going through lengthy discussions,” Kip Fagg, the club’s senior director of amateur scouting, tells The Athletic. “But, for me, I’ve always been on Josh. We’ve seen him for a few years now, and he’s always been an exciting player for me personally and for a lot of guys in our group.” Jung is the first college hitter Texas has taken in the first round in Fagg’s 10 drafts. As the 2019 college season got underway, Jung was widely projected as a top 10 pick — Baseball America slotted him at 1.7 in a February mock draft — but after hitting .392/.491/.639 with 12 home runs as a sophomore, he saw his numbers drop across the board this spring (.340/.478/.608 to date, with 11 homers). Without the spike in power that many publications were expecting, Jung’s draft projections began to slip. But not as far as the Rangers were concerned. “I do think you see the history of some college hitters that are hitters first, and they end up in the big leagues and they have power,” says Fagg. “That’s kind of what we see with Josh.” Jung, who tends to drive the ball up the middle and to the opposite field, hears the knock on his game power. He’s no more concerned about it than the Rangers are. “Power is really not what I try to emphasize as much,” says Jung, who is confident that he’ll start pulling the ball with greater consistency once he’s able to get in front of the Rangers’ hitting instructors. “I just get in there and I try to stay in the gaps and try to hit line drive shots. If it goes out, it goes out. I’m not really one of those guys who goes up there and swings as hard as I can to plant one.” “There’s no question the power will come,” agrees the Rangers’ North Texas area scout, Josh Simpson, who recommended both Jung and Wendzel. “Josh has a solid approach with plus ID skills and consistent bat-to-ball ability. Add in the plus bat speed and the strength — it’s going to be really good. The foundation is laid.” Undrafted out of San Antonio MacArthur High School (though Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock suggests Jung turned down fourth-round money from at least one team because he was set on going to school), Jung earned first-team Freshman All-American honors in 2017 (.306/.395/.453) and was a second-team All-American in 2018. His feel for the barrel is paired with a feel for the zone, and he’s piled up more walks (126) than strikeouts (115) in college. When Texas drafted Harris in 1989, he’d drawn nine walks in 220 plate appearances as a draft-eligible sophomore. When Jung was a sophomore, he walked 39 times. With a strong arm and enough agility to have played 26 games at shortstop this year, Jung projects professionally as a third baseman who won’t need to move across the diamond. He counts Nolan Arenado and Brooks Robinson as the players he most models his game after at the hot corner. “He’s a plus defender with sound ability to play third base,” Simpson says. “He’s got easy actions with an internal clock and a cannon for an arm.” Fagg adds: “Very good hands, very good feet, and a very accurate arm — and very good instincts.” On one hand, it might appear that Texas drafted for need by taking a college player at a position with no clear long-term answer at the big-league level or in the upper levels of the farm system. On the other, if the Rangers were getting away from a “best player available” approach and prioritizing need, they wouldn’t have taken another college third basemen with their very next pick in Wendzel. The Rangers broke from tradition in other key ways on Monday. Texas has long prioritized players who play in the middle of the field — of the 17 players selected by Fagg in the first and supplemental first rounds coming into 2019, the only two that didn’t pitch or play shortstop, center field or catcher were third basemen Joey Gallo (2012) and Mike Olt (2010). The club has also rarely taken a player at the top of its draft who was considered polished enough to potentially move through the system quickly. Given the state of the big club, though, it surely wasn’t a priority to target a player who might take less time to arrive. The Rangers simply liked Jung more than any other player who was still available when they went on the clock. There has also been speculation, perhaps based on various projections that had Jung going later in the first round, that he might have expressed a willingness to sign for less than the $5,176,900 slot value for the 1.8 pick. If that holds true, Texas could apply the unused balance to other picks in the first 10 rounds. For his part, Jung is thrilled to stay in Texas with the Rangers, no matter the reason why he was selected. He already has more familiarity with the area than the average prospect: Jung once played at Globe Life Park as a freshman against UTA and years earlier played across the street in the Rangers’ Youth Ballpark, which hosts tournaments for select teams aged 6 through 12. “In general, (it’s) a dream come true,” he said in a conference call. “Getting to play college ball and then having a good enough career to get drafted by any team is special. Then by the Rangers? That’s pretty sweet, too… I’m beyond excited.” The “dream come true” phrase resurfaced in another context Monday night, as well. “Tell you what, this is some kind of special kid,” Fagg said in a team-produced video shortly after the pick was announced. “We do extensive work on background, makeup, et cetera, and it was hard for us to find any flaws. The work ethic is through the roof. It’s like almost a dream come true, the person.” Jung indicated Monday night that, barring something completely unforeseen, he intends to sign with the Rangers rather than return to Lubbock for his senior year. Don’t expect it to happen in the next few days, though. His Red Raiders have advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals and will host Oklahoma State in a best-of-three series this weekend to play for a spot in the College World Series, which begins June 15. (Garcia’s UCLA club advanced to the Super Regionals, as well, and will host Michigan.) All told, neither the Jung pick on Monday night nor the Wendzel and Garcia picks that followed necessarily represent a change in draft philosophy for the Rangers, or even a departure from the club’s typical Draft Day gameplan. It also remains to be seen whether any or all of the three picks will result in under-slot deals that could pave the way for riskier moves today in Rounds 3 through 10. What the Jung pick, in particular, does point to is the Rangers zeroing in on a player that they liked better than the high school alternatives, better than a handful of other college hitters thought to be in the same tier and better than any pitcher. Next year, Texas could again turn to the high school ranks at the top, and maybe again the year after that. The one common denominator between Jung and former Texas first-rounders like Gallo, Cole Winn and Bubba Thompson is that, in the Rangers’ estimation, they were each the best baseball player available when it was their turn to make a pick. And in that sense, the club’s philosophy hasn’t changed a bit. As is the case with any draft pick, time will tell whether the club assessed correctly in making Jung its top pick. If nothing else, his chances for success appear to be better than Donald Harris’s ceiling-based profile promised and, if for no other reason than Jung has proven himself against greater competition and has built a track record that is more easily translated to the pro level, more likely than some of the high school picks Texas has made over the last decade. For now, though, it’s easy to imagine Jung suiting up in a third ballpark in Arlington — this time wearing a Rangers home uniform.
everyone’s favorite Ranger (Michael Young) aka Mr. Ranger will have his number retired this year as well hopefully his ceremony is worse and less attended than the GOAT’s was
what’s crazier is there’s a good chance they’d have a better record than the stros if they wouldn’t have tried to make smyly and miller work for 2 months