4 highlights that will get Mariners fans pumped for Cole Young's inevitable promotion

The Seattle Mariners have already called up one hyped infield prospect this season, and it feels like it's just a matter of time before they go back to that well for Cole Young.

The 21-year-old is the No. 43 prospect in MLB Pipeline's top 100, and he might be No. 1 if that list was ranked according to sheer hotness right now. Young has been on a heater for a couple weeks now, batting .390/.478/.780 with four home runs, seven doubles, and two triples in his last 15 games for the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers.

Though Young has primarily played shortstop since the M's chose him with the No. 21 pick in the 2022 Draft, he has made 25 of his 45 starts this year at second base. There is a semblance of an opening there for the big club, which has gone with a revolving door of options at the keystone ever since Ryan Bliss sustained a torn biceps in April.

As such, now is a good time for Mariners fans to get to know Young better, and the best way to do so is by taking a look at what he can do.

Cole Young is an outstanding hitter and fielder whose power is starting to come on strong

In the abstract, Young is an outstanding hitter who will also get by on his speed and fielding, and less so on his power. This is at least according to how his tools grade out on the 20-80 scouting scale for MLB Pipeline:

• Hit: 60
• Power: 45
• Run: 55
• Arm: 50
• Field: 55

As Young is only 5-foot-11, 180 pounds, the notion that he would be lacking in power is hardly shocking. But it may have been because of a lingering wrist injury that he slugged only .390 for Double-A Arkansas in 2024, and power is now suddenly a big part of his offensive game in 2025.

To wit, here's Young blasting a 458-foot home run last Friday:

That's a lot of pop for a guy who isn't supposed to have, well, a lot of pop. In fact, you may be surprised to hear that the Mariners have never seen Julio Rodríguez hit a ball as far as 458 feet. His longest in the majors traveled "only" 454 feet.

On their own, Young's average exit velocity of 89.3 mph and hard-hit rate of 43.9 percent don't jump off the page. But context matters. In this case, both of those numbers are higher than the broader averages for Triple-A hitters: 88.8 mph and 40.0 percent.

Even better, Young has not had to sacrifice his hit tool in order to upgrade his power tool. He has struck out (27) only four more times than he's walked (23) in 2025, and even those figures don't quite capture his willingness and ability to wear pitchers down.

For example, here's him ending a nine-pitch at-bat with a rope of a double to the opposite field:

In all, Young has seen 100 pitches on three-ball counts and racked up 16 hits with two strikes. The former is the most of any Rainiers hitter, while the latter is tied for the most with Harry Ford and Tyler Locklear.

Pitchers aren't even guaranteed success if they throw Young a good pitch with two strikes. Matt Sauer found this out the hard way on April 18, when he threw Young a well-located slider only to watch it get slapped down the left-field line for a run-scoring knock:

As for Young's work on the other side of the ball, we know he can handle covering second on stolen base attempts. But if anything, plays like the following make it feel like a shame that he is blocked at shortstop by J.P. Crawford:

Any extra quality the Mariners can add to their infield defense would be welcome. The infield as a whole has posted -6 Outs Above Average in 2025, putting it in the bottom third among MLB's 30 clubs.

As for when Young might get the call to The Show, we ballparked his promotion ETA at late June back in March. But that was obviously before we knew about Bliss' injury, much less that the M's would only be getting a .700 OPS and three home runs from second base through the first two months of the season.

Between Donovan Solano and Miles Mastrobuoni — combined OPS: .437 — the Mariners are rostering two infielders who are simply not pulling their weight. If an injury doesn't clear the way for him first, either player could conceivably be bumped to make room for Young.

Whatever the case, it's only getting harder for the Mariners to justify keeping Young down on the farm. There's hot and then there's "ready for the majors" hot, and he is the latter.