Cole Young has spent this season forcing his way into the Mariners’ conversation, and the numbers now have him brushing up against some of the best young seasons in club history.
The 22-year-old second baseman has been one of the few steady offensive forces in a Seattle lineup that has had to grind through an uneven year. He’s hitting .255 with 13 homers, 48 RBIs and three stolen bases, and he’s already piled up 98 hits. Along the way, he’s shown up in key spots and moved all over the order, including multiple turns in the leadoff role.
That’s a sharp turn from where things stood a year ago. Young hit just .211 last season, spent most of September on the bench and was left off the playoff roster entirely. This year, he came back with a different edge, and it has shown.
Mariners PR noted that Young “also leads AL second basemen and ranks T-4th among MLB second basemen (min. 50% G as 2B) with 3.1 Wins Above Replacement (Baseball-Reference) this season...he is on pace to join Ken Griffey Jr. (4x), Alex Rodriguez (3x), Julio Rodríguez (2x) and Ruppert Jones as Mariners to post a 3.0+ bWAR season at age-22 or younger.”
That puts him in rare company, and it also explains why he was viewed as a borderline All-Star even though he didn’t land on the American League roster.
The bigger picture for Seattle looks promising too. Between Young and Colt Emerson, the Mariners appear to have their middle infield situation lined up for the long haul. Emerson signed a long-term contract earlier this season, and Young is under team control through 2031.
Seattle enters Monday’s finale against the Texas Rangers at 52-54, sitting 1.5 games behind Texas in the American League West. A win would trim that gap to 0.5 games and, for now, keep the Rangers from securing the season-long tiebreaker.
If the Mariners are going to make that happen, they may need more damage from the middle of the order. Cal Raleigh, Dominic Canzone and Young have all homered off Rangers starter Kumar Rocker.
George Kirby gets the ball for Seattle in the 11:35 a.m. PT matchup.
Kirby is 9-1 in his career against Texas with a 1.33 ERA, and his nine wins against the Rangers are the most by one pitcher against one team since he entered the league in 2022. Per Mariners PR, only Framber Valdez against the A’s and Merrill Kelly against the Rockies have matched that.
After the series wraps, the Mariners head to Los Angeles to take on the Dodgers.
In Other News...
Mariners Missed A Third Base Fix Fans Knew They Needed
The Mariners had a chance to address one of their most persistent lineup headaches when they were reportedly in the mix for Kazuma Okamoto, a right-handed bat with power and enough defensive reliability to handle third base. Instead, the search for stability at the hot corner has kept dragging on, with Seattle cycling through options and never quite finding the kind of everyday answer that settles a lineup and lets everyone else slide into clearer roles.
Okamoto has already shown why he drew that kind of interest, giving Toronto a productive presence at third and steady middle-of-the-order thump in his first stretch there. For Seattle, the frustration is less about one missed name than the larger truth underneath it: this is still a team trying to patch together a position that should have been solved long before the season reached this point. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners May Finally Have A Real Fix For Their Biggest Hole
Seattles search for infield help could soon run through Miami, where the Marlins are reportedly open to hearing offers ahead of the August 3 trade deadline. For a club still looking to firm up one of its biggest roster questions, that makes the Marlins an intriguing place to shop, especially with several players on the table and the Mariners viewed as possible buyers if they decide to push for a fix.
Among the names drawing attention are Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards, two infield options who could fit Seattles needs in different ways. Lopez, in particular, looks like the cleaner match on paper because of his right-handed bat and defensive value, while Edwards brings a switch-hitting profile that could appeal in a different role. The Mariners do not have to act quickly, but the fact that Miami is even listening gives Seattle a real avenue to explore as the deadline approaches. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners May Finally Face The Tradeoff Fans Knew Was Coming
The Mariners have spent much of the season with a starting staff that looks almost unfair on paper, a six-man group built around Bryce Miller, Bryan Woo, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby and Luis Castillo, with Emerson Hancock rounding out the mix. It is the kind of rotation depth that gives Seattle a chance to survive almost any night, and it has only been reinforced by the fact that two more Mariners starters just landed inside the top 10 of a recent Just Baseball Top-100 Prospect Rankings update.
But the same pitching surplus that makes the staff so enviable also creates a familiar front-office dilemma, because the club still has obvious offensive needs to sort through. Hancocks name has already surfaced in trade chatter as the type of arm that could help Seattle address that imbalance, and with so many starters pushing for innings, the Mariners may soon have to decide whether to keep the rotation intact or use that depth to fill a different hole. [Read more 🡒]