How top Mariners prospect rediscovered his game in Double-A

Jan 27, 2025, 8:32 AM

Seattle Sports

Cole Young was ready to show off his slugging abilities during his second full minor league season. Dickey-Stephens Park in Little Rock, Arkansas, had other plans.

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Ultimately, it helped Young tap into who he is as a player.

Young was a standout during his first spring training with the Seattle Mariners last season. The highly regarded prospect slugged two doubles and two home runs while hitting .333 with a .987 OPS in 24 at-bats.

Young was ready continue his slugging with Seattle’s Double-A affiliate in Arkansas. However, he soon found out hitting at the Travelers’ pitcher-friendly home ballpark wasn’t going to be the same as the hitter-friendly confines in the Cactus League.

“It definitely helped me out a lot and it took a little bit, but looking back, it was really good for me,” Young said last week during a conversation on The Hot Stove Show.

After his strong spring, Young hit just .235 with one home run through his first 27 games with Arkansas.

“I had a pretty good spring. I hit a few home runs. So I thought I could hit a lot more home runs last year going into that year, and then the first month I couldn’t slug for anything,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything. And I kind of had to sit back and be like, ‘OK, this isn’t working. I got to change something.’”

Young decided he needed to quit selling out for power, take a more all-fields approach and lean into the bat-to-ball and on-base skills that helped him become one of the organization’s prized prospects.

The decision started to pay off. Young’s batting average crept up to .253 by the end of July, but the final 1 1/2 months of the season is when he really took off. He batted .312 over the final 38 games, including a run of four straight multi-hit games in August.

“I didn’t really fully commit to that approach till I would say August, and it shows in the stats,” Young said.

Young credited conversations with his dad for helping his late-season surge.

“He watches all the games and he helps me out. So we … talked on the phone and figured out a plan,” Young said. “He pretty much said we got to go back to how you were in middle school and high school, which was just being a complete hitter and getting on base a bunch.”

The changes were mostly mental, but there was an adjustment with lowering his hands to help hit pitches on the outside part of the plate.

“Just being OK with hitting a single to the left side and not trying to hit deep fly balls,” Young said.

Young finished his season in Arkansas with a .271/.369/.390 slash line, 25 doubles, two triples, nine home runs, 57 RBIs, 23 stolen bases, 67 walks and 87 strikeouts in 124 games.

The 21-year-old Young is the Mariners’ second-ranked prospect and No. 56 overall, according to Baseball America. Of the talented group of minor league hitters in Seattle’s system, he is the thought to be the closest to the majors and has a viable path to playing time this season.

Young, a 2022 first-round pick out of North Allegheny High School in Wexford, Pennsylvania, is hoping to build on his strong finish in 2024 in his second spring training with the big league club.

“I would say it’s just keep doing what I’ve been doing,” Young said of his mindset going into spring. “I don’t think I need to change anything really. I worked on the things that I need to work on, and I know what mindset will help me be successful in the games and stuff. So I’m not going to try to go in the spring and be a different player. I know what works for me and I’m going to keep doing that.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to The Hot Stove Show on Tuesday’s from 7-9 p.m. leading up to the start of spring training.