With the No. 12 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, the Tigers selected second baseman Jace Jung.
Jung, like his older brother Josh, was a star hitter at Texas Tech. Though their time in Lubbock didn’t overlap, with Jace arriving the year after Josh was drafted, both Jung brothers were All-Americans for the Red Raiders.
Jace’s top-rated tool is his bat. The 6-foot, 205-pound left-handed hitter generates a lot of power with an unorthodox swing. Jung starts with his bat tilted back toward the catcher instead of straight up and down — a little like Matt Olson — a swing he learned from one of his coaches at Texas Tech, former big league pitcher Ray Hayward.
This season, Jace hit .335 with 14 home runs, 59 walks and only 42 strikeouts, following up on a 2021 season in which he batted .337 with 21 homers, 49 walks and 45 strikeouts. In his Texas Tech career, Jung is a .328 hitter with 39 home runs and 126 walks to 102 K’s, and he’s led the Red Raiders to two NCAA Tournament appearances.
Now, Jace will look to follow in Josh’s footsteps. Josh was the No. 8 overall Draft pick by the Rangers in 2019, and he now ranks as Texas’ No. 2 prospect, the No. 3 third-base prospect in baseball and the No. 30 prospect in baseball overall.
“I don’t mind being compared to him. I’m not like that,” Jace told MLB.com earlier this month. “It’s been so much fun following in his footsteps, learning so much from him.”
Jace was named the 2021 Big 12 Player of the Year as a freshman and was also a finalist for the Dick Howser Trophy, given to the national college baseball player of the year. His brother was also a Big 12 Player of the Year, in 2019, making the Jung brothers the first pair of siblings to receive the honor in conference history.
Three years younger than Josh, the 21-year-old Jace was the fourth-ranked college hitter in this year’s Draft class and the top lefty college bat.