How will Rangers replace Jung?

This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry’s Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ARLINGTON -- The Rangers had six All-Stars in Seattle this season. As of Monday, four of them have endured an IL stint since the break: Josh Jung, Corey Seager, Nathan Eovaldi and Jonah Heim.

Seager is already back from a thumb strain. Heim (left wrist tendon strain) is progressing well and Eovaldi (right forearm strain) could still potentially return in September. Now Rangers rookie third baseman Jung finds himself on the 10-day IL with a thumb fracture that will require surgery and sideline him for about six weeks, according to manager Bruce Bochy.

Jung has started 107 of Texas' 112 games, leads all MLB rookies with 22 homers and is slashing .274/.323/.489. It seemingly is a difficult hole to fill, but the Rangers have faced similar circumstances many times this season. When Jacob deGrom went down, Dane Dunning stepped up in the rotation. Both times Seager went down, Ezequiel Duran stepped up. With Heim sidelined currently, Mitch Garver has continued his hot streak.

This time, three young infielders will have to step up in Jung’s absence: Duran, Josh H. Smith and Jonathan Ornelas.

“We’ll mix it up,” Bochy said. “Duran, Smitty, Ornelas, we’ll see where we’re at. Defense is gonna be an important part of this. So Zeke has not played a lot of third base over there. So we’ve gotta get him ready to play there quite a bit. Johnny did not play a lot of third base in Round Rock, but he'll be getting some work there. We're aware that he needs time there. And Smitty, we're fine with. We’ll just do the matchup thing.”

A natural middle infielder, Duran has become a quality utility player with the Rangers middle infield locked up for the foreseeable future. In his two years in the big leagues, Duran has played 55 games at third base, 36 at shortstop, 26 in left field, 13 at second base, two at first base and one in right field, including a start at shortstop on Monday.

In Seager’s first IL stint from April 12-May 17 with a left hamstring strain, Duran started the bulk of the games at shortstop. In 29 games (26 starts) when Seager was on the IL, Duran slashed .303/.339/.532 with six home runs and 21 RBIs.

“It shows you the value of somebody like Duran," Bochy said. “We lost Seager, and he goes to shortstop and plays a great short and along with swinging the bat well to soften that blow. This is what we need these guys to do with Josh Jung going down. They need to help soften the blow by not having Josh.”

Similarly, Smith -- a natural shortstop -- has slid into a utility role. In parts of two big league seasons, he’s played 42 in left field, 42 at third base, 33 at shortstop, 14 at DH and five at second base. Smith is hitting .213 with a .689 OPS in 62 big league games this season.

Texas’ No. 14 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, Ornelas began honing in on his versatility before his Monday callup. The Rangers’ 2022 Minor League Defender of the Year, Ornelas has played 64 games this year at his primary position of shortstop, and added 14 at second base, seven in center field and four at third base.

After a breakout season at Double-A Frisco in 2022, in which he slashed .299/.360/.425 and was added to the 40-man roster this past winter, Ornelas lost a bit of pop with Triple-A Round Rock. In 88 games with the Express, he’s hitting .250 with a .708 OPS, but no doubt provides the defensive flexibility and speed the Rangers want from a utility infielder.

It’s not every day that a team can replace an All-Star third baseman with three other former top 30 prospects, including a guy with an .796 OPS in Duran. The Rangers are in a good place, and they’ve overcome adversity as it relates to injuries so many times throughout the season already.

Bochy believes they can do it again.

“I can't say enough about how they dealt with some adversity, how they responded to tough games or injuries, how they had the ability to not focus on what happened, you know, focus forward,” Bochy said. “These guys have been so good all year. And they understand you're gonna have to deal with some things during the course of the season. You don't have, as I say, a choice but to deal with it and that's by going out there and continuing the focus forward.”

MLB.com’s Sonja Chen contributed to the reporting.