Jace Jung showed up at Tigers facility at 6:45 a.m. to try to break worst slump
LAKELAND, Fla. — Jace Jung has had a tough camp and needs a big week to make the Tigers’ Opening Day roster.
But he knows it.
Jung was at the Tigers facility at 6:45 a.m. on Sunday. He went to chapel and then hit the batting cages. He’s trying to make some last-minute adjustments, trying to show some improvement.
But he has struggled through this spring, hitting .121 with one homer.
“It's just weird,” Jung said, Sunday morning. “I've never hit like this before. I've never hit this low of average before. Obviously, I’ve gone in slumps — it's baseball. But it's weird because I feel really good, still feel really good about everything.”
So, he has made some tweaks Sunday. “I went to a key I had last year and it felt really good in the cages,” Jung said.
Jung said he still feels good at the plate, still feels confident.
“It's just like my timing is just a little off — that's just causing a little bit of rollovers and pop ups,” he said. “Or my stride might be a little too long. My hands might be getting caught a little bit behind me because my stride is too long. I'm stretching out too far, too fast. There's a lot of things that I fixed today, and hopefully I get to try it soon.”
He was not scheduled to play Sunday.
“I know I'm gonna snap out eventually,” Jung said. “It could be tomorrow; it could be the next day. It's gonna come for me. I'm not panicking or anything. I know it's gonna come. But this last week, it's just go out there and grind. Hit the ball, let it find a hole somewhere, and get this show on the road.”
Part of his problem is he is missing both fastballs and off-speed pitches.
“That's a lonely place to be in the batter's box when you're missing, fouling off good pitches to hit and not centering the ball as well as he can," Hinch said Sunday. "You can see it starting to frustrate him, but he's staying in the fight and doing what he can. His defense has gotten better at third and for the most part.”
Jung’s struggles — in addition to Matt Vierling’s injury — have only complicated matters at third base.
“There's going to be a timeshare there — I can safely say that,” Hinch said. “But how it actually going to play out? I not sure yet.”
Javy Báez started at third on Sunday against Baltimore in Lakeland.
“Is there a scenario where Baez actually gets a lot of time there?” a reporter asked Hinch.
“I don't know,” Hinch said. “And I'm okay not knowing right now, you're seeing the same group of guys that we've that we've always played there. So we plan to sort it out, as the season gets underway. So, I guess the short answer is, we'll see, and the long answer is, we haven't even named our team yet for me to know who I'm choosing from.”
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jace Jung in a funk makes Tigers third base question more pressing
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