Cole Young Delivers Ideal Mariners Response After Opening Night Struggles

Cole Young’s first game of 2026 was rough. He struggled going 0-3 with three strikeouts on Opening Day, and after a scorching hot spring training, it was strange to see a dud to open the season. Then one night later, he came back, stayed on time, got a fastball he could handle, and launched a three-run homer that helped push the Mariners to their first win of the season.

It mattered more because of how bad the first night looked. There’s no reason to dance around that part. Three strikeouts in your season debut is a miserable way to open, especially for a young hitter trying to prove he belongs in an everyday role on a team that keeps telling everyone it’s ready to contend. He looked a lot more like himself in Game 2, and the payoff was immediate.

Cole crushed. pic.twitter.com/4TECWlC2dx
— Seattle Mariners (@Mariners) March 28, 2026

Cole Young Gives Mariners a Needed Reset After Shaky 2026 Opening

Young has looked more dangerous for a while now. He was by far Seattle’s most impressive player in camp and he spent the offseason getting stronger and more confident in the box. He was also the club’s spring home run and RBI leader. So the power surge this season wouldn’t be random. It would be more like a continuation of what he’s been building toward.

The box score says one hit in three at-bats with a strikeout. That’s okay. But the bigger takeaway is that he looks calmer. He’s not dancing around in the box as much. He looks more centered. The swing looks more direct. And when he gets something over the plate, there’s more authority behind it. That’s been the whole question with Young for a while. Nobody really doubted the feel to hit or the zone control. The bigger question was always whether there was enough impact in the bat to make pitchers pay. Early returns this spring and now in the first week of the season are giving the Mariners a pretty good answer.

Young has been moving fast for a reason. He was the No. 21 overall pick in 2022, hit .271 with nine home runs and 23 stolen bases at Double-A in 2024, then forced his way into the 2025 conversation after a scorching stretch at Triple-A Tacoma before his call-up. In his major league debut last May, he became the first player in Mariners history to record a walk-off plate appearance in his first game. So one bad opener was never supposed to redefine anything. But it was still fair to want a quick response. He gave them one.

After one miserable debut, he came right back and delivered the kind of swing that reminds everyone why this second-base conversation changed so much in the first place. This lineup still needs young contributors to actually become real contributors. Young gave about as ideal a response as Seattle could’ve asked for.