Wednesday, May 06

SEATTLE -- Cole Young isn’t just the youngest player on the Mariners’ roster. He’s also become the kid brother of their clubhouse, but in the most virtuous way.

And interactions with teammates illustrate it all -- none more encapsulating than last week in Minnesota.

Young had delivered the go-ahead hit in last Tuesday’s win, but was innocently unaware that two traveling reporters wanted to speak with him postgame. So, he sat down for a late-night dinner.

When Cal Raleigh passed by, he asked why the reporters were still there so late. The final team bus was just 15 minutes away from departure, and Raleigh -- as an unofficial clubhouse spokesman, who’s almost always available -- recognized the tight turnaround, for both team transit and content deadlines.

So, when he learned of the holdup, he popped into the kitchen and shouted, “Cole! These guys want to talk to you.”

Young, with youthful innocence, stopped eating mid-meal, wiped his mouth and rushed out for a brief interview -- while food was still on his plate.

As Julio Rodríguez walked by, he joked to a team PR staffer that Young is still, well, young -- and that he’ll pick up on these types of protocols with time.

To be sure, reporters interrupting a player while eating is a major no-go, nor was it the expectation that Young had to stop eating right away.

Yet the whole exchange -- Raleigh, the veteran, telling Young to essentially report for duty, and Young immediately dropping what he was doing to fulfill that task -- was all-telling for a guy just wanting to do what’s needed of him.

“It's really hard to put into words, really, what Cole has done here in the early going,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said, “and he's really found a really nice groove.”

This dynamic continued a few days later.

During a pregame interview ahead of the Mariners’ nationally-televised game on Apple TV on Friday night, Rodríguez doused Young’s cap with sunflower seeds. Yet the second baseman’s focus never wavered. Over about two minutes, the 22-year-old had roughly a dozen roasted shells scattered on his City Connect cap while giving genuine answers to the camera.

Teammates heckle Young because they like him. And just as much, because he’s become a key piece to this club.

“Very impressed,” said Josh Naylor, who connected much more with Young in Spring Training. “But it's credit to his work on and off the field. He grew a lot this spring. He asked a lot of questions. He gained a lot of knowledge. He worked his butt off in early work, pregame stuff, postgame. I mean, he's doing phenomenal, because he's putting in the work.”

Young has come out of his shell much more over the past three months. It’s not like he was shy before, but he was understandably trying to fit in. Making the Major League leap last May 31 came with the fulfillment of a lifelong dream but also heightened expectations.

“The thing that I've noticed too is, with every player, there's valleys at times,” Wilson said. “His valleys have gotten very short. And the at-bats that he's putting up on a consistent basis have been outstanding.”

Countless times in interviews this season -- mostly postgame and mostly after he delivered a big hit -- Young has credited his approach in those moments through some rendition of “do my job” or “I’ve got a job to do” or “I didn’t want to strike out.”

That, too, is telling of his pattern of behavior. He wants to deliver for the good of the team, but also to make his guys proud.

“I think it's just calming myself down,” Young said. “And not trying to be someone I'm not. Not trying to be a hero in every situation. Just pass the baton and just try to get on base. And I feel like that's helped me out a ton.”

Away from the ballpark, Young’s lifestyle is what you’d expect for a guy who, had he not been drafted straight out of high school in 2022, would be finishing his senior year of college.

He’s behind on furnishing his apartment in the Seattle area. He prefers the clubhouse spread, both at home and on the road, because the food is solid, and more logistically, it’s there. His hobbies away from work include a lot of late-night video games.

In many ways, he’s still just a kid. And it’s increasingly evident that his teammates love that about him.

The Mariners liked what they saw from Luis Castillo on Sunday, but his performance didn’t necessarily yield a massive shift in how they handle their five-man rotation once Bryce Miller returns from the injured list.

Word is that they have an idea of how they’re going to allocate innings across their six starters, among Castillo, Miller, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo and Emerson Hancock.

It actually might be more like 10 different ideas.

But because those decisions are still potentially up to 10 days away, they’re not tipping their hand on what direction they’re leaning. Knowing this front office, it could be an unorthodox and outside-the-box method to get creative.

Miller will make at least one more rehab start, Wednesday at High-A Everett, targeting 65-70 pitches. That would put him in line to build toward 80-85 the next time out, when the first major decision will be made -- for him to make that start in the big leagues, tentatively one week from Tuesday, or instead opt for one more rehab outing.

That decision will exclusively come down to his readiness, because the club has been adamant that it will not bring Miller back out of team need.

There are a ton of moving parts to this, and all the machinations in play will begin making movement in the coming days.

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