Tigers To Promote Jace Jung
The Tigers are calling up top infield prospect Jace Jung from Triple-A Toledo, reports Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press. The 12th overall pick of the 2022 draft will make his major league debut tomorrow evening against the Yankees.
Jung joins what’ll be a suddenly younger Detroit infield. The Tigers are also bringing up deadline acquisition Trey Sweeney, a 2021 first-round pick whom they acquired in the Jack Flaherty deal. That duo will join rookie second baseman Colt Keith as the Tigers evaluate young players who could be key pieces of next year’s team. Keith has had an up-and-down debut campaign at the keystone, as he’s had very poor months of April, June, and August around huge performances in May and July.
Once Detroit moved Keith from third to second base, they slid Jung to the hot corner. He has started 68 games there this season against 17 starts at second base, which had been his primary position at Texas Tech and for his first two years in pro ball. Detroit has used Gio Urshela as their primary third baseman. His bat has started to come around following a rough first half, but the Tigers seem to be turning their attention toward next season. Despite an ongoing four-game win streak, they’re 7.5 back of the American League’s last playoff spot.
Jung, the younger brother of Rangers third baseman Josh Jung, adds a high-upside offensive talent. He ranks fourth among Detroit prospects and 75th overall on Baseball America’s most recent ranking of the farm system. BA credits the left-handed hitter with plus power and a patient approach. While there’s some concern about his pure hit tool, the walks and power give him a chance to hit in the middle third of a lineup.
The 23-year-old is having a nice season in Toledo. He’s hitting .257/.377/.454 with 14 homers, 23 doubles and a triple through 415 plate appearances. Jung is drawing walks at a massive 16.1% clip while striking out at a roughly average 22.4% rate. While he has fallen into a bit of a slump of late, Jung has hit very well with the platoon advantage over the course of the season. He’s hitting .272/.402/.510 in 321 plate appearances against righty pitching.
Jung has predictably had a tougher time with left-handed arms. Detroit has a few righty-hitting infielders who could take some starts against southpaws, but Jung figures to play regularly over the season’s final six weeks. Urshela is on a one-year free agent deal and always felt like a bridge until Jung was ready to take over at third base. The Tigers should give him near everyday reps to gauge whether they can pencil him in as their starter going into 2025.
Jung will not come close to a full year of service or the time necessary to reach early arbitration as a Super Two player. He’s under team control for at least six seasons beyond this one and won’t get to arbitration for three years. A future optional assignment to Triple-A could push that timeline back.
The timing of Jung’s promotion, likely not coincidentally, comes just after the cutoff for him to preserve his rookie eligibility going into next season. From tomorrow, there’ll be 45 days remaining on the regular season calendar. A position player remains a rookie so long as they’ve spent 45 days or fewer on an MLB active roster and have not topped 130 at-bats. So long as the Tigers keep him below the at-bat threshold, Jung would be eligible for Rookie of the Year consideration going into next season.
That’s a relevant factor thanks to the Prospect Promotion Incentive introduced in the most recent round of collective bargaining. A team can earn a bonus draft pick if they carry a rookie top prospect (one who made the offseason Top 100 on at least two of the lists at Baseball America, ESPN, and MLB Pipeline) for a full service year. If that player wins Rookie of the Year or finishes in the top three in MVP balloting during his pre-arbitration seasons, the team would get an extra pick after the first round of the following draft.
Jung could be in consideration for the prospect criteria, as evidenced by his placement on BA’s current Top 100. There’s no guarantee he’ll make two of the three lists next winter — and it’s certainly not a lock that he’ll win Rookie of the Year — but the Tigers would at least keep the possibility open if they plan for Jung to break camp in 2025. The Cardinals timed their promotion of top shortstop prospect Masyn Winn right at this time last season, for instance.
Sweeney isn’t the same caliber of prospect, but Detroit could give him a look at shortstop in place of the struggling Javier Báez. They’ll need to add both players to the active and 40-man rosters. They don’t have any obvious candidates to land on the 60-day injured list, so they might need to designate multiple players for assignment tomorrow.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
AL Central Notes: Francona, Twins, Tigers
The first 20,000 fans in attendance at Wednesday’s Guardians home game against the Reds will receive “Thank You, Tito” t-shirts, to commemorate what is very likely Terry Francona’s final home game as the Guards’ manager. It isn’t much of a secret that Francona is planning to retire after the season, though he has stopped short of making an official announcement since “he would rather execute an Irish exit than attract one extra iota of attention,” the Athletic’s Zack Meisel writes. Meisel’s piece is an excellent profile of Francona’s long career as a manager, coach, and player, providing plenty of insight and colorful anecdotes into one of baseball’s greatest skippers.
Here’s more from around the AL Central…
- The Twins will use Pablo Lopez and Sonny Gray (in an order to be determined) as the starters of their first two playoff games, manager Rocco Baldelli told The Athletic’s Aaron Gleeman and other reporters. Baldelli didn’t confirm any of Minnesota’s other pitching plans for October, but in implying that Kenta Maeda will be working as a reliever during the postseason, that would seem to set up Joe Ryan as the team’s top choice as a third starter. Ryan has a 3.82 ERA over 30 2/3 innings since returning from the injured list, as trying to pitch through a groin strain contributed to some very shaky numbers for Ryan in midseason after an outstanding April and May. Maeda has had a strong season in his own right and hasn’t worked as a reliever since 2019, but his usage out of the bullpen gives the Twins a potential impact reliever for their playoff run.
- Tigers prospect Jace Jung has played only second base and DH during his two pro seasons, but he’ll now be getting some looks as a third baseman in the Arizona Fall League, Lynn Henning of the Detroit News writes. Both MLB Pipeline (67th) and Baseball America (98th) rank Jung among the top 100 prospects in baseball, though both outlets have concerns about his eventual defensive future, as second base was seen as a less-challenging spot for Jung than the hot corner. However, an even more highly-touted Detroit prospect faces similar defensive questions, as Colt Keith (18th BA, 25th Pipeline) looks ticketed for second base duty. Keith gets the priority because he has posted big numbers at Triple-A this second and could factor into Detroit’s lineup as early as Opening Day 2024, while Jung might need more time to get acclimated at his new position and has yet to reach Triple-A. Keith and Jung are two of several intriguing position-player prospects coming up the ranks in the Tigers’ farm system, to the point that Henning feels a possible logjam for future playing time gives the Tigers a good problem to have in figuring out who plays where, and ultimately might players might be kept or used as trade chips.
Tigers To Sign First-Rounder Jace Jung
The Tigers are in agreement with No. 12 overall draft pick Jace Jung, tweets Jim Callis of MLB.com. The now-former Texas Tech standout will receive his full slot value of $4,590,300. The team has yet to formally announce the deal, though that’s presumably coming in the near future.
Jung, the younger brother of top Rangers third base prospect Josh Jung, looked like a slam-dunk first-rounder throughout a strong season at the plate. The left-handed-hitting 21-year-old turned in an outstanding .335/.481/.612 batting line with 14 home runs, 18 doubles, a triple, five steals (in five tries) and more walks (59) than strikeouts (42) through 295 plate appearances during his junior season with the Red Raiders.
The younger Jung brother spent the vast majority of his college career at second base, and that’s where he’s expected to play as a professional. There’s little doubt among scouts that Jung has the tools to be a well above-average hitter at the position, as scouting reports agree that he has above-average to plus raw power with above-average pitch selection and a potentially plus hit tool — all of which are complemented by his all-fields approach. There’s less optimism about Jung’s defensive future, given questions about his range and arm strength. Jung profiles as a bat-first second baseman whose advanced offensive profile could allow him to move quickly through the minor leagues.
Heading into the draft, Jung ranked as No. 8 prospect on the board, per The Athletic’s Keith Law, also landing ninth at MLB.com, ninth at Baseball America, 13th at ESPN and 20th over at FanGraphs.
2022 MLB Draft, First Round Results
The 2022 MLB Draft is underway, and here is the full list of each team’s selections from the first round. The Dodgers are the only team without a first-rounder, as their top pick (originally 30th overall) was dropped 10 places to 40th overall (the first pick of the second round) as part of their punishment for exceeding the highest luxury-tax tier in 2021. However, there are still 30 picks in the first round proper since the Mets have both the 11th and 14th overall picks — for not signing 10th overall pick Kumar Rocker last year, New York was given a compensatory selection in the 11th overall spot this year.
This year’s draft will again be 20 rounds long, and split over three days. The first 80 picks will be made tonight — the first two official rounds, the two Competitive Balance Rounds, and the two sets of compensatory rounds (giving picks to teams who lost qualifying offer-rejecting free agents). Rounds 3-10 take place on Monday, and rounds 11-20 on Tuesday.
Under the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement, the 2023 draft will have several differences, including a lottery to determine the top six picks, a revamped process for deciding the Competitive Balance rounds, possible extra picks for teams due to the Prospect Promotion Incentive rules, and possibly the end of the qualifying offer system as we know it should an international draft be implemented.
For one final year under this draft format, however, let’s dive into the picks. More details and scouting reports on all these young players are available in pre-draft rankings from Baseball America, Fangraphs, MLB Pipeline, The Athletic’s Keith Law, and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel. As well, Pipeline has the breakdown of the slot values assigned to each pick in the first 10 rounds, as well as the bonus pool money available to all 30 teams.
The selections….
- Baltimore Orioles: Jackson Holliday, SS, Stillwater High School (OK)
- Arizona Diamondbacks: Druw Jones, OF, Wesleyan High School (GA)
- Texas Rangers: Kumar Rocker, RHP, Vanderbilt (played in independent Frontier League in 2021)
- Pittsburgh Pirates: Termarr Johnson, SS, Benjamin E. Mays High School (GA)
- Washington Nationals: Elijah Green, OF, IMG Academy (FL)
- Miami Marlins: Jacob Berry, 3B/OF, LSU
- Chicago Cubs: Cade Horton, RHP, University of Oklahoma
- Minnesota Twins: Brooks Lee, SS, Cal Poly
- Kansas City Royals: Gavin Cross, OF, Virginia Tech
- Colorado Rockies: Gabriel Hughes, RHP, Gonzaga
- New York Mets: Kevin Parada, C, Georgia Tech
- Detroit Tigers: Jace Jung, 2B, Texas Tech
- Los Angeles Angels: Zach Neto, SS, Campbell University
- New York Mets: Jett Williams, SS/OF, Rockwall-Heath High School (TX)
- San Diego Padres: Dylan Lesko, RHP, Buford High School (GA)
- Cleveland Guardians: Chase DeLauter, OF, James Madison University
- Philadelphia Phillies: Justin Crawford, OF, Bishop Gorman High School (NV)
- Cincinnati Reds: Cam Collier, 3B, Chipola JC (FL)
- Oakland Athletics: Daniel Susac, C, University of Arizona
- Atlanta Braves: Owen Murphy, RHP, Riverside-Brookfield High School (IL)
- Seattle Mariners: Cole Young, SS, North Allegheny High School (PA)
- St. Louis Cardinals: Cooper Hjerpe, LHP, Oregon State University
- Toronto Blue Jays: Brandon Barriera, LHP, American Heritage High School (FL)
- Boston Red Sox: Mikey Romero, SS, Orange Lutheran High School (CA)
- New York Yankees: Spencer Jones, OF, Vanderbilt University
- Chicago White Sox: Noah Schultz, LHP, Oswego East High School (IL)
- Milwaukee Brewers: Eric Brown Jr., SS, Coastal Carolina University
- Houston Astros: Drew Gilbert, OF, University of Tennessee
- Tampa Bay Rays: Xavier Isaac, 1B, East Forsyth High School (NC)
- San Francisco Giants: Reggie Crawford, LHP/1B, University of Connecticut