Jared Young has more in the tank

Last December, the Mets’ 1B/DH situation was in flux. Pete Alonso was a free agent and demanding far more than the Mets were seemingly willing to pay him. JD Martinez had retired. Faced with a serious need for thump at the cold corner after signing Juan Soto, the Mets did something very creative and inked Jared Young to a split contract.

A former Cub and Cardinal, Young was trending towards the dreaded Quad-A label in 2023. Despite hitting well in Triple-A (albeit with a BABIP-boosted line), he looked generally overmatched in very limited MLB playing time in Chicago, who waived him in in November. The Cardinals snapped him up, and something seemed to click; Young cut his strikeout rate in Triple-A from the mid-20s to 18%, driven by a significant improvement in his whiff rates against breaking balls and his chase rates. Young’s 142 wRC+ over half-a-season with the Redbirds earned him a midseason deal with the Doosan Bears, and he continued to mash overseas with a .326/.420/.660 line (178 wRC+).

The Met’s vision with Young seemed pretty clear. Here was a former prospect of some note, one who had always demonstrated great damage-on-contact skills and seemed to have addressed his deficiencies in the contact and approach department. He immediately became a clear contender for a big role with the 2025 Mets and one who the real sickos among us were quite excited to follow.

That story didn’t play out unfortunately. Unexpected re-signings, first of Jesse Winker and ultimately Alonso, left Young buried on the depth chart. We got some fun moments to be sure – Young’s first hit was a two-run home run and he hit an absolute nuke during a romping win in Philadelphia – but overall, Young hardly played. He also struck out in 35% of his at bats when he did get in the lineup and was barely allowed to play the field (though that may have just been due to the idiosyncrasies of the Mets’ manager). Hardly the exciting sleeper impact we would have hoped for when he was signed.

What about in the minors though? That’s where Young spent most of his season, and he was actually fantastic. His .303/.402/.567 line was undoubtedly juiced by the crazy run environment of Triple-A, but it was also more than 50% better than league average. His 108.4 MPH 90th percentile EV and 115.5 MPH max were both 96th percentile or better, and his damage per BBE was top shelf as well. He also demonstrated a strong approach with a SEAGER of 15 (68th percentile) and, most critically, controlled his in-zone whiffs with a reasonable 84% z-con.

Numbers courtesy of Rob Orr’s app

In short, that’s a lot of the same signal that made us excited about Young in the first place, and over a longer sample size (336 PA) than his spotty MLB time. The 2024 gains largely held, lending more support to that idea that Young could be a legitimate contributor.

We’re at an early enough stage of the Mets’ offseason that most things are still unclear. Jesse Winker is gone, Pete Alonso is a free agent, and Brandon Nimmo has been traded, leaving a significant void across the bottom-of-the-defensive-spectrum positions on the roster. Young will not be the first or even second answer to those holes, but he still carries much of the same promise that made him an intriguing option in the first place. Hopefully he’ll get more runway to prove it this time around.