A factor that can help Cole Young earn All-Star nod

It has been quite the start to Year 2 in the big leagues for Seattle Mariners second baseman Cole Young.

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After an up-and-down showing as a rookie in 2025, the 2022 first-round pick has been among the Mariners’ best hitters through the first month of the 2026 campaign.

Young is hitting .276 with a .346 on-base percentage, .405 slugging percentage and .751 OPS in 33 games. His 19 RBIs lead the team and his three homers have already nearly the matched the four he hit in 77 games a year ago.

And on Seattle’s recent six-game road trip, Young hit .500 (11 for 22) with one homer, two doubles and eight RBIs. He drove in at least one run in each game.

On top of the production at the plate, Young has shined defensively. His nine defensive runs saved are the most among MLB infielders and the second most of any player.

ESPN insider Jeff Passan discussed Young’s stellar start to 2026 when he joined Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Thursday. Passan wasn’t ready to say the Mariners are seeing the emergence of a budding star, but he can tell the work the 22-year-old second baseman did during the offseason has paid off.

“When he came up last season and struggled, he understood I have to get more physical and I have to get stronger. And Cole Young showed up to camp this year and he was looking, frankly, like a different guy, and I think that’s what we’ve seen right now,” Passan said.

“He’s sacrificed a little bit with swing and miss and taking pitches and drawing walks to do damage. That’s the Faustian bargain that players of his size have to make.”

Passan was asked if Young is on his way to an All-Star campaign. With more than two months until the All-Star game and the league sure to make adjustments against Young, he believes it’s too soon to tell, but Young is on the right pace.

“If he keeps this up, yeah, absolutely. We’re still, though, a month into the season, and here’s the thing, scouting reports on Cole Young are being rewritten in real time,” Passan said. “When a player has this kind of jump and is having this sort of success… suddenly, even if you’re not toward the top of the lineup, teams start saying: ‘Hey, we gotta be a little bit more careful with this guy. You can’t feed him all the fastballs anymore because they’re not necessarily gonna beat him.’”

One factor Passan said Young has working for him for an All-Star bid this season is how the talent at second base is dispersed across baseball.

“When it comes to second base in the American League in terms of All-Stars, it is wide open,” Passan said. “(New York’s) Jazz Chisholm (Jr.) has been bad this year. (Houston’s) Jose Altuve has cooled down significantly. I thought coming into this year Luke Keaschall with Minnesota was going to have a really good season, he’s gotten off to a terrible start.

“All the best second basemen in baseball right now, whether it’s (Milwaukee’s) Bryce Turang, (Chicago’s) Nico Hoerner, (St. Louis’) J.J. Wetherholt is very quickly putting himself in that area in his first season, they’re all in the National League. So I think there’s real opportunity for Cole Young to be in one of those spots.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Brock and Salk weekdays form 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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