Cole Douglas Young (born July 29, 2003) is an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

second baseman In baseball and softball, second baseman, abbreviated 2B, is a fielding position in the Infielder, infield, between Baseball field#Second base, second and Baseball field#First base, first base. The second baseman often possesses quick hands and f ...

and

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball positions, baseball or softball fielding position between second base, second and third base, which is considered to be among the Defensive spectrum, most demanding defensive positions. Historically, the ...

for the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. The Mariners compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. The team joined the American ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB). He made his MLB debut in 2025.

Amateur career

Young was raised in Wexford, Pennsylvania, a suburb of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. In 2014, he won

’s national Pitch, Hit & Run competition, held at

Target Field Target Field is a baseball stadium in the North Loop, Minneapolis, historic warehouse district of downtown Minneapolis. Since its opening in 2010, the stadium has been the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Minnesota Twins. It is named for Tar ...

, in the 9- and 10-year-old division. Young attended North Allegheny High School in Wexford. As a high school freshman, Young committed to play

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played by Student athlete, student-athletes at institutions of higher education. In the United States, college baseball is sanctioned mainly by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); in Japan, ...

for the

Duke Blue Devils The Duke Blue Devils are the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Duke University, located in Durham, North Carolina. Duke's athletics department features 27 varsity teams that all compete at the N ...

. He also was the first freshman to make the ''

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving Greater Pittsburgh, metropolitan Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the fi ...

'''s All Area team. His sophomore season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a junior, Young batted .437 with 33 runs scored, 23 RBIs and 14 extra-base hits. That summer, Young played in the High School All-American Game at

Coors Field Coors Field is a baseball stadium in downtown Denver, Colorado. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies. Opened in 1995 Major League Baseball season, 1995, the park is located in Denver's LoDo, Lower Downtown neighborhood, ...

, held before the 2021 MLB All-Star Game. As a high school senior, he hit .433 with 2 home runs, topping .400 in every season of high school.

Professional career

Young was considered a top prospect for the

2022 Major League Baseball draft The 2022 Major League Baseball draft took place on July 17–19, 2022, in Los Angeles. The draft assigned amateur baseball players to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The draft order was based on the reverse order of the 2021 MLB season standin ...

. The

selected Young in the first round of the draft, with the 21st overall selection. He signed with the Mariners on July 26 and received a $3.3 million signing bonus. He played for the Arizona Complex League Mariners for one week in August, then moved up to the

Modesto Nuts The Modesto Nuts are a Minor League Baseball team of the California League and the Single-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. They are located in Modesto, California, and are named for the several types of nuts grown in the Central Valley. They ...

for 10 games. He returned to Modesto for the start of the 2023 season before being promoted to the

Everett Aquasox The Everett AquaSox are a Minor League Baseball team in Everett, Washington. The team is a member of the Northwest League and is the High-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. The AquaSox play their home games at Funko Field, which has a seatin ...

in July. Young hit better after his promotion, with an .884

on-base plus slugging On-base plus slugging (OPS) is a sabermetric baseball statistic calculated as the sum of a player's on-base percentage and slugging percentage. The ability of a player both to get on base and to hit for power, two important offensive skills, are ...

with Everett, up from .825 with Modesto. Prior to the 2024 season, Young was ranked among the top 70 prospects by MLB.com, ''

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'',

Baseball Prospectus Baseball Prospectus (BP) is an organization that publishes a website, BaseballProspectus.com, devoted to the sabermetric analysis of baseball. BP has a staff of regular columnists and provides advanced statistics as well as player and team perf ...

, and

FanGraphs FanGraphs.com is a website run by Fangraphs Inc., located in Arlington, Virginia, and created and owned by David Appelman that provides statistics for every player in Major League Baseball history. On September 18, 2009, Fangraphs Inc. launched ...

. During the offseason, Young added 10 pounds of weight through weightlifting training. He spent 2024 with the Double-A

Arkansas Travelers The Arkansas Travelers, known informally as The Travs, are a Minor League Baseball team based in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The Travelers are the Double-A (baseball), Double-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners and play in the Texas League. Hi ...

, batting .271/.369/.390 with nine home runs and 23 stolen bases. He also played in the 2024

All-Star Futures Game The All-Star Futures Game is an annual baseball exhibition game hosted by Major League Baseball (MLB) in conjunction with the mid-summer MLB All-Star Game. A team of American League-affiliated prospects competes against a team of National League- ...

. After the season, Young said he initially tried to hit for more power in 2024 but changed his approach, due in part to playing in a pitcher-friendly home ballpark. After the season, he played one game for the Peoria Javelinas in the

Arizona Fall League The Arizona Fall League (AFL) is an off-season baseball league owned and operated by Major League Baseball (MLB) which operates during autumn in Arizona, United States, at six different baseball complexes. Arizona Fall League rosters are filled ...

. He reportedly suffered from wrist discomfort during 2024, which may have limited his fall league availability. Young began the 2025 season with the Triple-A

Tacoma Rainiers The Tacoma Rainiers are a Minor League Baseball team of the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. They are located in Tacoma, Washington, and play their home games at Cheney Stadium, ...

. He ranked as a top 60 minor league prospect by several outlets, though FanGraphs ranked him 85th. In 54 appearances for Tacoma, Young batted .277/.392/.461 with five home runs, 26 RBI, and four stolen bases. On May 30, 2025, Young was selected to the

40-man roster A Major League Baseball roster is a list of players who are allowed, by league agreement, to play for a Major League Baseball (MLB) team. Each MLB team maintains two rosters: an active roster of players eligible to participate in an MLB game, an ...

and promoted to the major leagues for the first time. The next day, in his first major league game, Young had the game winning RBI in the bottom of the 11th inning.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Cole 2003 births Living people Arizona Complex League Mariners players Arkansas Travelers players Baseball players from Pittsburgh Everett AquaSox players Major League Baseball second basemen Modesto Nuts players Peoria Javelinas players Seattle Mariners players Tacoma Rainiers players 21st-century American sportsmen