Though some of the words might have been familiar, the feelings were genuinely his.
Jung said Friday that his statement, modeled after what the late Kobe Bryant said when the Hall of Fame basketball player tore his left Achilles tendon in 2013, helped him get through some of the feelings he had since surgery earlier in the week when a plate and seven screws were inserted into his wrist. Jung is expected to miss eight to 10 weeks.
“This is such BS. All the training and sacrifice just flew out the window with one pitch. A pitch I’ve seen a million times,” Jung read from his phone. “The frustration is unbearable. The anger is rage. The words are few and far in between.”
Jung suffered the broken bone after he got struck when swinging at a pitch Monday night. His right hand immediately went numb, and the break was worse than expected when he had surgery.
The 26-year-old, who last year as a rookie was voted as the American League All-Star starter, hit .412 with two homers and six RBIs in the first four games after missing most of spring training with a left calf strain.
“You’ve been through something, you know you can do it again,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “Just a shame he’s had to do it so many times at his age. He was primed to have another great year, and he was swinging the bat so well, and playing a great third base.”
The No. 8 overall pick in the 2019 amateur draft out of Texas Tech, Jung had already played in the All-Star Game when he broke his left thumb on a fielding play at Miami last August. He returned to hit .308 (20-for-65) in the postseason with three homers for the World Series champion Rangers.
He previously had surgery in February 2022 to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder, a year after an operation to repair a stress fracture in his left foot.
“Why did this happen to me again? It just makes no damn sense. Now, I’m supposed to come back from my fourth surgery in four years and be better than I was. Again,” Jung said, still reading from his phone and saying some of the same things as Bryant. “Do I have the constant willpower to overcome all of these things? What lessons do I still need to learn? Maybe this is the breaking point. Maybe this is the point of no return. Or maybe this is the story I’ll be able to tell standing at the top of the mountain.”
Jung said real perspective sinks in when finally letting out all of the emotions, and that he knows there are far greater challenges in the world than a broken bone.
“Stop feeling sorry for yourself, find the silver lining and get to work with the same belief, the same drive and the same conviction,” he said. “One day it will be the end of the road. But that day is not today. Today, you will rise up. You will stand up again. The test of a man is that when he is knocked down seven times, he stands up eight. No matter what you go through, you will endure it and you will conquer it and you will come back better than ever. I will believe it and I will live it.”
Bryant was 34 when he got injured late in the 2012-13 season. He played parts of three seasons after that.
After reading his prepared remarks while standing at his locker in the Rangers clubhouse, Jung told the small group of reporters around him that he would lean on his experience when again going through rehab.
“It just sucks that you have to do it again,” he said. “But I know how to do it.”
Infielder Ha-Seong Kim and the Tampa Bay Rays are in agreement on a two-year, $29 million contract that includes an opt-out after the first season, sources told ESPN, adding a Gold Glove winner to a Rays team that places significant emphasis on defense.
Kim, 29, who is expected to return from shoulder surgery in May, likely will start at shortstop but also has played second and third base, with his Gold Glove coming in a utility role.
The deal, which will pay Kim $13 million this season, is the most Tampa Bay has guaranteed in free agency for a position player since signing outfielder Greg Vaughn for four years and $34 million in 1999.
Before the partial tear of his right labrum required surgery, Kim was expected to land a free agent deal in the nine-figure range. With his opt-out, he can join a free agent class next year that’s thin on infielders, with shortstop Bo Bichette and second baseman Luis Arraez the only players of Kim’s caliber.
He arrived from Korea in 2021, signing with the San Diego Padres as a bat-first middle infielder. While the power Kim displayed in Korea didn’t show up as frequently as it did with the Kiwoom Heroes, his glove was a revelation, and in four seasons with the Padres, he posted double-digit wins above replacement despite never slugging above .400.
Tampa Bay enters the 2025 season with playoff aspirations but had been relatively quiet over the winter, signing catcher Danny Jansen and trading left-hander Jeffrey Springs to Oakland. The Rays used Jose Caballero and Taylor Walls at shortstop last season and are expected to do the same this year before the return of Kim.
Shortstop Wander Franco, who was expected to be the Rays’ long-term solution at the position after signing an 11-year deal, remains on the restricted list while facing charges in the Dominican Republic of sexual abuse, sexual exploitation against a minor and human trafficking.
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New York Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner weighed in on the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ offseason spending spree, saying it will be even more “difficult” to keep up with the reigning World Series champions.
The Dodgers have spent more than $450 million guaranteed this offseason, pushing their 2025 luxury tax payroll to approximately $390 million.
With the penalties for exceeding the $241 million threshold, the Dodgers’ total payroll for this year likely will be in excess of $500 million.
“It’s difficult for most of us owners to be able to do the kind of things that they’re doing,” Steinbrenner said during an interview with the YES Network that aired Tuesday. “We’ll see if it pays off.”
Despite losing superstar Juan Soto as a free agent to the crosstown rival Mets, the Yankees also have had an active offseason, headlined by Max Fried‘s eight-year, $218 million deal.
The Yankees currently have Major League Baseball’s third-highest luxury tax payroll at just under $303 million. The Phillies are second at just under $308 million, more than $80 million behind the Dodgers.
The Yankees were listed in March 2024 by Forbes as MLB’s most valuable franchise, worth an estimated $7.55 billion, while the Dodgers were the second-most valuable at approximately $5.45 billion.
Steinbrenner, whose Yankees lost to the Dodgers in last season’s World Series, added Tuesday that Los Angeles’ busy offseason does not guarantee another championship.
“They still have to have a season that’s relatively injury-free for it to work out for them,” Steinbrenner said. “It’s a long season as you know, and once you get to the postseason, anything can happen. We’ve seen that time and time again. We’ll see who’s there at the end.”