Seattle Mariners' Top Prospect Belts First Spring Training Home Run on Thursday
Playing against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday afternoon, Seattle Mariners' top prospect Cole Young belted his first home run in an M's uniform.
The sweet-swinging lefty hit the home run out to deep right center field in Peoria, Ariz., where the M's play their spring training games.
The 20-year-old Young was a first-round pick of the Mariners back in 2022 and some reports indicate he could be on the fast track to the big leagues.
He enters the 2024 season as the M's No. 1 rated prospect and the No. 37 prospect in all of baseball.
The following comes from his MLB.com profile page:
Young has shown an exciting ability to hit the ball hard to all fields from the left side of the plate. He has impressive contact skills, striking out in less than 15 percent of his plate appearances in 2023 while drawing nearly as many walks. He’s added a good amount of strength since being drafted and is approaching average power as he’s learned to turn on pitches, with confidence that some of the 34 doubles he hit in 2023 will reach the seats in the future.
A smart and aggressive above-average runner, Young has enough range and arm to play shortstop for a long time. He’s seen some time on the right side of second to provide some positional versatility, something that could come in handy since his advanced bat looks like it could get him to Seattle sooner rather than later.
While playing at multiple A-ball levels in 2023, Young hit .277 with a .399 on-base percentage. He hit 11 home runs and stole 22 bases.
At the major league level, the Mariners will utilize Jorge Polanco at second base this year, but Yong shouldn't be too far behind.
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