The Pittsburgh area might not seem like a high school baseball hotbed, but it has produced some solid Draft talent, from 2020 first-round pick Austin Hendrick back to 2004 first-rounder Neil Walker. Young, who attends North Allegheny High School in the suburbs north of the city, was a mainstay and steady performer on the summer showcase circuit, and a solid, if unspectacular spring, gives him the chance to join them in the opening round.
Young is the kind of player who needs to be seen more than once to be truly appreciated, as his feel for the game is greater than any jump off the page tools. That said, he does have impressive bat-to-ball skills from the left side of the plate. He doesn’t swing and miss much, doesn’t look overmatched against velocity and shows the ability to use the whole field. While he’s not a huge power guy, there is some impact here, with gap power.
An above-average runner who is capable of taking the extra base, Young has enough range and savvy, to go along with an above-average arm, to stay at shortstop long-term. The Duke recruit has received comps to left-handed hitting infielders like Adam Frazier, with more extra-base impact and a better chance to stick at short, and former first-rounder Stephen Drew.
Young developed a reputation as a high school infielder with an advanced feel for the game as a Pittsburgh area high schooler and has done nothing to tarnish it since the Mariners took him in the first round of the 2022 Draft. He performed well across two levels of A ball in his first full season, and when the Mariners felt confident enough in him to send him straight to Double-A for year two, he responded with another solid campaign as one of the youngest regulars in the Texas League.
A left-handed-hitting infielder, Young continues to show a very mature approach at the plate. He makes a ton of contact with a simple and repeatable swing, seeing pitches while also limiting the swing-and-miss tendencies, finishing the 2024 season with a 19-percent miss rate. He’s struck out in just over 15 percent of his career plate appearances heading into 2025, compared to a robust 13.3 percent walk rate. The one thing that hasn’t come as much is his power, as he doesn’t possess a ton of raw pop, and while the Mariners think he could eventually flip a switch to sell out for more power in an Alex Bregman kind of way, they don’t want him to sacrifice his contact skills now.
More than in any other area, Young may have progressed the most last year defensively, becoming rangier at shortstop to give more confidence he can play there long-term. He’s sure-handed, has good reactions and makes up for what’s mostly an average arm with accuracy and a quick release. He’ll keep playing on both sides of second base, though, to give the big league club options for when they think he’s ready to contribute.
After taking college pitchers in the first round three years in a row from 2018 to 2020, the Mariners turned their attention to high school hitters for the next three Drafts, starting with Harry Ford in 2021 and most recently, Colt Emerson in 2023. Sandwiched between those two prep standouts was Young, taken No. 21 overall in 2022 from the Pittsburgh area. In his year-plus in pro ball, Young hasn’t looked like a raw high schooler from a cold-weather region, using his advanced feel for hitting to perform well across two levels of A ball in his first full season of pro ball.
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.
Despite growing up in Pittsburgh, an area not known as a baseball hotbed, Young blossomed into one of the best pure-hitting high school prospects in the 2022 Draft. The left-handed hitter was a regular standout on the summer showcase circuit. Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto described Young as having “the sweetest swing” among that year’s contingent, illuminating how much the club values his hit tool, enough for the M’s to select him at No. 21 overall.
Young ascended so quickly after the Draft that the Mariners promoted him to Single-A Modesto one month later, where he slashed an eye-popping .385/.422/.539 in 10 games. What stood out most in that small sample was his all-field ability, and he’s quickly become a favorite of the Mariners’ mantra of 'Dominate The Zone.' And despite his 6-foot frame, the Mariners believe that there is more power potential after he added 12-15 pounds of muscle in their offseason program, prompting one scout to suggest that his “power will surprise everybody in baseball.”
Young is also an above-average runner and has enough range and arm to stick at shortstop long term, which -- after the club dealt Noelvi Marte to the Reds in the Luis Castillo blockbuster -- makes him the top middle-infield prospect in the system. He’s drawn comps to lefty-hitting infielder Adam Frazier but with more extra-base impact.
The Pittsburgh area might not seem like a high school baseball hotbed, but it has produced some solid Draft talent, from 2020 first-round pick Austin Hendrick back to 2004 first-rounder Neil Walker. Young, who attended North Allegheny High School in the suburbs north of the city, was a mainstay and steady performer on the summer showcase circuit, and a solid -- if unspectacular -- spring enabled him to join that group when the Mariners took him No. 21 overall.
Young is the kind of player you can appreciate the more you see him, as his feel for the game is greater than any jump-off-the-page tools. That said, he does have impressive bat-to-ball skills from the left side of the plate. He doesn’t swing-and-miss much, doesn’t look overmatched against velocity and shows the ability to use the whole field. While he’s not a huge power guy, there is some impact here, with gap power.
An above-average runner who is capable of taking the extra base, Young has enough range and savvy, to go along with an above-average arm, to stay at shortstop long term. He’s received comps to left-handed hitting infielders like Adam Frazier, with more extra-base impact and a better chance to stick at short, and former first-rounder Stephen Drew.
These run values are leveraged, meaning the base/out situation at the time of the event does impact the run value (thus introducing context outside the batter's own contribution).
Note: xHR tells how many of this player's home runs would have been out of other stadiums. The "Adjusted" view here accounts for different wall heights, distances and environmental effects using Statcast Park Factor data.
Standard
Year
HR
2025
2
2
1
6
6
2
2
1
3
1
1
4
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
3
1
2
3
2
1
1
1
1
2
3
1
Player
2
2
1
6
6
2
2
1
3
1
1
4
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
3
1
2
3
2
1
1
1
1
2
3
1
Note: xHR tells how many of this player's home runs would have been out of other stadiums. The "Standard" view here accounts for different wall heights and distances but excludes environmental effects. It is based purely on the observed trajectory of the hit.
! Note: Shifts are through the 2022 season, Shaded starting from the 2023 season, Shift: three or more infielders are on the same side of second base, Shade: positioned outside of their typical responsible slices of the field. Learn more about how positioning is defined here
