The Seattle Mariners are leading the American League West. That’s good news. The bad news is that Seattle (30-24) is just a half game ahead of the Houston Astros (30-25), who have won the division in seven of the past eight years.
If the Mariners want to win what is sure to be a tight divisional race, they need a strong lineup. With pitchers Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller still dealing with injuries, and George Kirby yet to return to his 2022-24 form, the Mariners’ offense has had to carry the load. The problem is that there are currently two black holes in the lineup.
The Mariners have received almost no production from the third base and right field positions. Mariners third basemen have contributed just 0.7 fWAR over the first 55 games of the season. That gets even worse considering offensively, they have been worth -0.6 fWAR. Rookie Ben Williamson has looked out of his comfort zone, and utility man Miles Mastrobuoni has been mostly ineffective.
Even worse has been right field. Mariners right fielders this season have included Victor Robles (now out until September with shoulder injury), Luke Raley (out until June or July) and Leody Taveras. They have combined for wrc+ of 76 (a stat where 100 is average), and are among the bottom five right-field squads in the league with -0.8 fWAR.
There is a solution the Mariners could easily tap into. His name is Cole Young.
Young is the team’s No. 3 prospect and is ranked No. 43 in the MLB. He is a shortstop by trade, but has been playing second base with Triple-A Tacoma as he prepares to eventually take over as the Mariners’ starter at second base. He is blocked at shortstop by J.P. Crawford.
So far in Triple-A, Young is slashing .277/.384/.849. He’s slugging well, with 13 doubles, five triples and five home runs. He’s scored 38 runs and driven in 25 runs. What’s more, he’s been hot. All five of his home runs have come in May. In fact, Young is hitting .371 in the month of May, with a 1.146 OPS.
While he is still 21 years old, it appears that Young is ready. He could be called up to play second base this week. It would allow the team to move utility man Dylan Moore from second base to either right field or third base, and would effectively close one of the holes in the lineup.
Yet, the team has so far refused to call up Young. It seems likely that this is due to a service time manipulation tactic that teams use to save money. Players who are called up before June are often eligible for Super 2 status, which gives them an extra year of salary arbitration. Players called up in July or later are rarely eligible for Super 2 status. For that reason, many teams wait until mid-June to call up their top prospects, to save them the extra year of arbitration and save money in the process.
It is a sad reflection of the state of the Mariners’ ownership group that they would rather play both Ben Williamson (73 OPS+) and Leody Taveras (67 OPS+) every day for the next two to three weeks, but that is really the only explanation for why Cole Young is still in triple-A. After back-to-back years of missing the playoffs by a single game, you would think the Mariners would be more aggressive.
