Highly-touted Young likely to begin 2025 season in Triple-A

This story was excerpted from Daniel Kramer’s Mariners Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

SEATTLE -- Cole Young very well could be part of the Mariners’ plans in 2025, but Seattle's No. 2 prospect won't be in the mix for the club's Opening Day roster.

That’s no surprise, even with a void at second base in light of the team declining Jorge Polanco’s $12 million club option last Friday. Young will “likely” begin the year at Triple-A Tacoma, Mariners general manager Justin Hollander said this week at the GM Meetings in San Antonio, putting the 2022 first-round Draft pick one step closer to the Majors after spending all of last year at Double-A Arkansas.

So, with Polanco’s departure and Young needing more seasoning, the Mariners’ plans to address a position that has mostly plagued them since the Robinson Canó era are in flux.

“We have some internal options,” Hollander told MLB.com’s Sonja Chen, pointing to Dylan Moore, Ryan Bliss and Josh Rojas. “And obviously, as we get through the winter and the offseason, we'll look at the free-agent market, we'll look at trade market and try and find the right mix of players, whether that's one player to fill the spot, or a player to mix in with our existing in-house options to help solidify the position.”

The Mariners’ view Young as their long-term answer, and sources have said that they’ve constructed their roster as such in recent years -- Polanco being the prime example, when he was acquired last year to serve as a stopgap.

However, when they traded for the veteran from Minnesota, Hollander suggested at the time that they envisioned him being in Seattle for two years, before an unexpected decline that was largely related to a left knee injury that required surgery last month and an adjustment to pitcher-friendly T-Mobile Park.

Young, who’s also ranked MLB Pipeline’s No. 38 overall prospect, had a solid year in 2024 but he wasn't as consistent as he was in '23, when he soared from Single-A Modesto to High-A Everett and was widely touted the best pure hitter in the system.

Young posted an .847 OPS in 2023 and a .759 OPS in ‘24. At Tacoma, he’d shift to a much more hitter-friendly environment, in the Pacific Coast League, compared to Arkansas’ Dickey Stephens Ball Park, widely viewed as a pitchers’ park.

“We don't have a certain date in mind,” Hollander said. “I think the important thing that we talk about all the time is making sure we're doing the right thing for the player and not being shortsighted about when that time is.”

The Mariners made notable promotions to the Majors in recent years based on need, such as Bryce Miller and Bryan Woo, who were each injury fill-ins in 2023 but remained permanent fixtures. But with Young -- and more specifically, second base -- they intend to create clarity at the position this winter for the entire ‘25 season.

”We don't have artificial timelines in place that it has to be in August or it has to be in June or they have to do ‘X’ number of at-bats at a certain level,” Hollander said. “Show us through your performance, your skills, your emotional maturity, that you're ready to go play in the big leagues and we'll continue to progress you.”

As for the other internal candidates, Moore just won the Gold Glove Award for 2024 at the utility position, underscoring the value of his versatility, which the Mariners won’t want to sacrifice. Bliss showed promise in spurts and was overwhelmed at times, both at the plate and in the field. Rojas was also susceptible to streaky stretches but emerged as an above-average defender at third base.

If they were to plug-and-play at second -- with Rojas in that mix -- they could conceivably swing for a more impact bat at the hot corner, via trade or free agency. First base, with primary outfielder Luke Raley as the only on the depth chart currently, is also an area of need.

“I would love to find a player that just played 160, 155 games and provided that kind of impact over the course of the season,” Hollander said, specifically about the corner infield. “If we can't do that, we have to be smart and make sure that we give our team the best chance to win night in and night out.

“And sometimes that comes with platoons, and sometimes that comes with match up situations, and sometimes that comes with just rotating players through to keep them fresh. But we’re open to all those options.”