By his own admission, Prince George's Jared Young says he met his expectations this spring as a Chicago Cubs prospect.
That's being modest.
Young's first major league baseball experience was nothing short of spectacular.
It started with his first at-bat Feb. 25 against the San Diego Padres, when he took an 0-1 breaking ball offered by Ger Hayes over the wall for a two-run home run.
Three days later, Young did it again, turning on a Sam Lewis pitch with a line drive that went for a three-run shot against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
All told, the 23-year-old from Prince George played in 16 Cactus League games for Chicago and performed well enough to earn a promotion to the Cubs' double-A affiliate in Knoxville, Tenn. Young will start the season next week with the Tennessee Smokies.
"It's a pretty sweet honour," said Young. "I guess it shows that the organization is really seeing the strides I've made over the last couple years and it's going to be be lot of fun. At every level ahead you go, the game seems to get a bit cleaner and that's what I'm anticipating and I'm pretty excited.
"It was a good spring and I'm very pleased with the way I went about my business and how things turned out and that's where I want to be. I reached my expectations I guess you could say and that's something I'll always put on myself is a high expectation for work ethic and production."
Drafted in the 15th round by Chicago in 2017 out of Old Dominion University in Virginia, Young started his pro career that year with the Eugene Emeralds. He moved up to the Class-A South Bend Cubs last year and was promoted at midseason to the Class-A advanced Myrtle Beach Pelicans. He was the Cubs' choice as their minor league player of year in 2018, hitting .300 with 16 home runs and 76 RBI.
Young arrived at the Cubs' spring training base in Mesa, Ariz., and immediately turned heads with his bat, hitting .240 with a .560 slugging average, .296 on-base percentage and .856 OPS. In 25 at-bats he clubbed two home runs, two doubles, had six RBI and scored five runs.
Defensively, Young played error-free baseball. In 19 innings over five games at first base, he had 16 chances and 15 putouts, helping turn one double play. He also played six games in the outfield, mostly the left side, and in 26 innings had two chances and two putouts.
"I was still a minor-leaguer in minor league camp but when they have home games some of the big-leaguers don't play the whole time, maybe five innings or so, so they send over minor-leaguers to play the last four innings and I was fortunate enough to be in (16) games, so I got a pretty good taste of what it looks like," said Young.
"That was definitely one of the cooler experiences in my life. It seemed like it came at me pretty fast and life kind of humbles you and the end was a little tough. I'm assuming that's what it's like in the big leagues. You're not going to hit home runs every at-bat, but it was a blast. (My early success) made it easier when they called me back because some of the guys knew who I was and I wasn't just a another minor leaguer. It was pretty incredible."
One of the highlights of March for Young came in a game against Seattle when he got to play against Ichiro Suzuki. The Mariners outfielder announced his retirement in Tokyo last week right after the Mariners opened the season against Oakland.
Driving in baserunners who draw multi-million-dollar salaries on a team that won the World Series three seasons ago gave Young a sense of belonging and brought into clearer focus his ultimate dream to make it as an everyday major league player.
"It's very refreshing to know that you might not be that far away," he said. "Just to be on the same field as them is very rewarding. I looked at it as a blessing.
"It's the best organization in sports, I'd like to think. They treat us like royalty and it was definitely fun to be part of. Everything was insane up there but definitely meeting Joe Maddon and Brian Butterfield, the manager and the third-base coach, that was a highlight for me. Those guys are baseball legends."
Young left a positive impression on Maddon and in a March 28 article posted on the Chicago Tribune website he raved about Young and 2018 draft pick Cole Roederer, who also hit a home run in his first career exhibition game.
"Some of the best swings in camp have been from (Roederer) and Jared Young," said Maddon. "Our young lefties technically have really good swings and approaches.
"They're not afraid. These two kids are really interesting."
Young and the Smokies open their 140-game Southern League schedule at home next Thursday against the Mississippi Braves.
