Sunday hops.

A weekly compendium emptying the bench, with Rangers developments, rumors, and takes — and yes, a little TROT COFFEY.

So, what’s this?

I’m planning to use this space each Sunday to gather, in digest form, some Rangers notes that don’t merit a whole story. Or that don’t merit a whole story yet.

For those of you who have been with me since the days of Michael, Cliff, and Wash, yes, we’ll finish this bases-clearing effort each time with a dose of TROT COFFEY. (For those who haven’t, I’ll explain when we get there.)

Off we go. (Free taste today; these will be subscriber-only after this one.)

Jung & the barking calf.

Welp. Once again, Josh Jung’s camp won’t be linear.

The league shut down his first spring training in 2020, less than halfway through, due to COVID-19. In 2021, he came down with a stress fracture in his left foot during camp and needed surgery that kept him out of action until June. In 2022, he felt something in his left shoulder lifting weights. The result: a torn labrum, surgery, season debut in July. Last spring, an auto accident on the way to a road exhibition in Tempe only cost him one game — he wasn’t injured and he started the season on time.

That’s the hope on the heels of the news that Jung strained his left calf fielding ground balls on Friday — that his regular season won’t be delayed. Bruce Bochy estimated it will be three weeks before the team reevaluates his low-grade strain; Jung prefers to think it will be just two. Count on three.

And hopefully not more.

A Rangers coach told me early in Jung’s pro career that he “trains like his life depends on it,” with “a top-1-percent work ethic and hunger to be great.” That was before the third baseman got to the big leagues; now we all get to see those things for ourselves.

He’s obviously a huge part of the core here, and there’s still room to grow. After his blistering first third in 2023 (.295/.341/.531; .872 OPS) in which he earned AL Rookie of the Month honors in both April and May, he slumped in June and July (.249/.301/.428; 729 OPS) as teams began to exploit his appetite for the breaking ball down and away. He then fractured his left thumb in early August (what is it about the left side of Jung’s body?) and missed six weeks. His return to action was ragged (.229/.276/.386; 662 OPS) — until the playoffs, when he was suddenly the April/May version again, hitting .308/.329/.538 (.867 OPS) with as many massive, timely defensive plays as at-bats.

What follows a World Series is a really short offseason. Especially when the World Series leads to a parade and lots of extra off-field demands. But it’s easy to imagine, given Jung’s track record, that he was back at it as soon as anyone. Now he has to sit on the side for a bit.

It seems like Nelson Cruz and John Wetteland each used to be slowed in camp virtually every year with something. Back spasms, a neck strain, shin splints, a hammy. All forgotten by time the bunting was unfurled for Opening Day. I vote for that as far as Jung’s calf is concerned.

Roomies.

Evan Grant reports that Jung reached out to 2023 first-rounder Wyatt Langford this winter and invited him to live with Jung and Nathaniel Lowe at their Arizona house this spring. Cool. For a few reasons.

Jung, a college star and a top-10 pick in 2019 who arrived with predictions of a fast track to the big leagues (a plan that was derailed a bit by the combination of the pandemic and the above-mentioned injuries), can surely relate to what Langford is experiencing. At least part of it. Langford is going to get a lot of work with the big club in camp, and there are scenarios — unlikely, granted — under which he could break camp as a major leaguer. That wasn’t going to be the case with Jung, even if the 2020 season wasn’t delayed and then decimated.

But in Jung (.831 OPS his rookie summer, through the Low-A level), Langford (1.157 OPS in his, including 1.000+ at all four stops, culminating at Triple-A) has somewhat of a role model, not just in the clubhouse but during the video-games-and-Chipotle phase back home at the end of the day. Jung not only dealt with the pressure of expectations; he battled through a bunch of added adversity on his way to Arlington, and there are teaching moments in there.

It’s also a really cool development for Jung himself, who now gets to grow into a leadership role that he was certainly headed toward.

A wrinkle in Foscue’s usage.

Justin Foscue, the one hitter the Rangers used a first-round pick on between Jung and Langford, was a third baseman as a freshman at Mississippi State. He was a third baseman and a second baseman as a sophomore. He was strictly a second baseman as a junior before COVID-19 ended the season early, and played nothing but that position as a pro in 2020 (at the club’s alt-site in Arlington), 2021, and 2022, until mixing in a little third in August and September of that year.

In 2023, the hot corner assignments ticked up in Triple-A, though Foscue still played twice as many innings at second. But he also got nine games in at first base — including four of his final nine defensive games. And now he’s reportedly going to see most of his time in camp working as a first baseman.

Foscue was added to the 40-man roster at season’s end (fellow bat-first first baseman Blaine Crim was not), and that gives him roster flexibility that could be important iin 2024. Including the playoffs, Lowe played 1,564 ⅓ of the Rangers’ 1,591 ⅓ first base innings in 2023 (winning a Gold Glove along the way). Texas didn’t really have another accomplished first baseman on the roster — the other 27 innings went to Brad Miller, Ezequiel Duran, Sam Huff, and Mitch Garver, all of whom play primarily elsewhere on the field.

Getting Foscue work at first base, of course, doesn’t only give the Rangers more protection at the position than they needed a year ago. Unless something goes horribly wrong, he’s never going to get extensive work at second base or third base as a Ranger. The big question as far as Foscue’s relatively immediate future is whether his greatest value to the Rangers is as a DH candidate, a bench bat, or a trade piece. There’s no harm in sending him back to Round Rock on what will be his first option if the Rangers turn elsewhere at DH coming out of camp, but he’ll be 25 in two weeks and his trade value could start to recede before long, if only for that reason.

If the right-handed hitter does have a strong camp and makes the Opening Day roster, it wouldn’t be surprising — if that strong camp includes satisfactory work at first base — to see him not only assigned DH at-bats but also used defensively to give Lowe occasional time off against certain lefties.

TROT COFFEY!

For the uninitiated, back in 2008 I started to aggregate and comment on Rangers trade rumors when appropriate, particularly around the trade deadline and Winter Meetings each year. I childishly chose to give the feature a name — Trade Rumor Offerings To Chew On For Fun, Even Yuks (acronymically honoring veteran journeyman middle reliever Todd Coffey) — and it became a far more popular part of the Newberg Report playbook than I ever anticipated.

There hasn’t been a month since I shut the newsletter down to head to The Athletic in 2018 when a reader hasn’t asked for a TROT COFFEY revival. Now, it’s back.

I sent out the first TROT COFFEY entry on July 24, 2008, which started with two notes: that the Yankees had expressed interest in Rangers catcher Gerald Laird (according to Fox Sports and the Newark Star-Ledger) — and that the Yankees had not expressed interest in Laird (according to ESPN). Such is the rumor business.

The only dissent with regard to the rumor I bring to the table today regards when the White Sox will trade starter Dylan Cease, who will earn $8 million this year and have another season of club control in 2025 (via arbitration) before he can be a free agent. He’s going to be traded. Maybe now, maybe in July, maybe next winter. This July is probably the likeliest scenario; he’ll have more value for two pennant races than one, and apparently Chicago hasn’t been crazy about the offers they’ve fielded this offseason (manager Pedro Grifol announced three weeks ago that Cease will be his Opening Day starter).

Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News suggested this weekend that the Rangers should approach the White Sox (who reportedly asked the Reds for three top-100 prospects for Cease in December) with “some combination of Leody Taveras, Zeke Duran, Justin Foscue, or Jack Leiter.” The same day, The Athletic’s Jim Bowden wrote that the Rangers should approach the White Sox on Cease or the Marlins on Edward Cabrera, who is controllable through 2028.

I’ve weighed in on both pitchers over the last seven months. In July, I spitballed a trade discussion in which Texas offered Chicago a package of Foscue, righties Owen White (who had just made his major-league debut and would soon be promoted to Triple-A) and Glenn Otto (who was then on the big-league staff), and outfielder Bubba Thompson for Cease and veteran relievers Kendall Graveman and Joe Kelly — but concluded that the offer would probably fall short unless the Rangers were willing to substitute Luisangel Acuna in for Foscue. Acuna, of course, was traded weeks later to the Mets, straight up, for Max Scherzer.

In November, I threw this idea out on Cabrera: right-handed pitching prospects Zak Kent, Jose Corniell, and Emiliano Teodo, utility man Josh Smith, and minor-league shortstop Cam Cauley to Miami for Cabrera, lefty reliever Andrew Nardi, and (much-older-version-of-Smith) bench asset Jon Berti. It would be a lot to give up.

With reports growing more and more pessimistic about a potential reunion with Jordan Montgomery — he would certainly be my preference — it might be that a spring trade would be the most effective way to add meaningful innings to the rotation to help get the team to summer-hopefuls Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, and Tyler Mahle in contending shape.

I think Sherrington’s idea — he later clarified he’d propose Leiter plus two from the Taveras-Duran-Foscue group — would only be enough to keep the White Sox on the phone if they believe Leiter’s late-season surge was a turning point. But even then, it’s a lot for Texas to part with, given that all three hitters are likely going to play significant roles in 2024. Taveras is your everyday center fielder unless you’re ready now to hand left field to Langford or patch it up in the meantime. Foscue could be the primary DH. Duran is probably your third base insurance in case Jung’s calf doesn’t respond well.

Would Texas part with, say, Leiter, Duran, and Foscue for Cease? Maybe. But that’s probably light if the Rangers want to take the 2022 Cy Young runner-up off the market before the summer.

At this point, what I’d love to see is the Rangers approaching the Pirates with a loaded-up offer for starter Mitch Keller (two years of control) and closer David Bednar (three years). In November, I proposed a deal sending Duran, Leiter, Crim, and Jonathan Hernandez to Pittsburgh for Bednar and five years of fellow reliever Dauri Moreta. Replace Moreta with Keller and it would take substantially more. But I’d like to find out what that might look like.

Still, I sure would rather have a reason to write a Montgomery story in the next week.

Coming soon . . .

Either today or tomorrow, I’m planning to open up a Chat thread inviting your questions for our first mailbag. If you’re a subscriber, you’ll see the invite in your email.