Josh Jung Is Quietly Heating Up — WaiverScout Had Him First
Josh Jung is hitting .364 with a .404 wOBA over his last five games, and almost nobody is paying attention. At just 21% rostered with only a +1% ownership change over the past week, the Rangers' third baseman is flying completely under the radar. Early signs suggest this could be a meaningful late-season surge worth monitoring.
The Signal: Contact Quality Is Real
Let's start with what matters most. Jung's 9.1% strikeout rate over this stretch is elite-level contact ability. He's putting the bat on the ball consistently and doing damage when he does — a 50.0% hard-hit rate and 91.1 mph average exit velocity back up the .364 batting average with legitimate quality-of-contact data. This isn't a BABIP mirage built on bloopers. When Jung is squaring balls up half the time, the results tend to stick longer than your typical hot streak.
The one concern: a 0% walk rate across 22 plate appearances. He's been aggressive — perhaps too aggressive — and that lack of patience could become a liability if pitchers start working around him. But in a 22-PA sample, zero walks doesn't necessarily indicate a broken approach. It could just mean he's been hunting hittable pitches and finding them.
Rolling Window Breakdown
Jung's 7-day, 14-day, and 30-day numbers are identical because he's only accumulated 22 PA over 5 games in this window. That tells us two things: first, the sample is still very early, so confidence is limited. Second, he's only recently returned to consistent playing time, which means the opportunity piece of this signal is just now materializing. He's logged 22 PA across the last seven days — that's everyday starter usage, and it's worth watching whether Texas continues to give him the reps down the stretch.
WaiverScout Has Been Tracking Jung All Season
This isn't the first time our algorithm has flagged Jung. We had him as a Watch back on April 12 when he was rostered in just 3% of leagues, then upgraded him to Add Now on April 18 at 8% ownership. We issued multiple Add Now signals through the spring and summer — April 27, May 24, June 19, July 2, and July 19 — as his ownership climbed into the 40-53% range. Managers who listened early reaped the benefits.
His ownership has since cratered from a peak of 53% down to 21%, following a Deprioritize classification as recently as September 15. But here's the key: two days after that Deprioritize signal, the bat woke up. He went 3-for-5 on September 16 and launched a homer on September 17. The algorithm has now shifted him back to Watch status, and given our track record with Jung, that matters.
Ownership Window
No major fantasy publication is currently highlighting Jung. This signal could be ahead of the mainstream conversation entirely. At 21% rostered with stable velocity, there's no urgency panic — but there's also no competition for the add. If you're looking at the third base waiver wire and weighing names like Eugenio Suárez, Junior Caminero, or Max Muncy, Jung deserves to be part of that conversation based on the last week of production.
Verdict: Watch
Don't rush to add Josh Jung yet. Twenty-two plate appearances is not enough to override the volatility he's shown all season — his ownership didn't drop from 53% to 21% without reason. But the contact quality metrics are encouraging, the playing time appears secure, and the price is essentially free. Monitor his next 7-10 games closely. If the hard-hit rate stays above 45% and the strikeout rate remains suppressed, this Watch becomes an Add Now in a hurry. WaiverScout will be watching — just like we've been watching since April.