Jared Young is on his way to triple-A.
The 26-year-old Prince George-born-and-bred Young got the call-up to the Chicago Cubs’ top farm team on Monday after turning in another productive weekend for the double-A Tennessee Smokies.
Young went 3-for-4 Sunday in a 2-0 road loss to the Montgomery Biscuits, coming off a 5-2 win over the Biscuits on Saturday. In that game, Young’s two-run single in the eighth inning gave the Smokies a 4-1 lead. He finished with two hits in four plate appearances.
On Friday, the Smokies hammered the Biscuits 10-0 and Young clubbed his fourth home run of the season, a two-run shot in the second inning. He also delivered a single in the fifth inning to finish 2-for-4 at the plate.
Young has been one of the top hitters lately in the eight-team Double-A South League. He’s hitting .326 with 22 runs batted in and three stolen bases. His on-base percentage is .396 and he has a .915 OBS (on base percentage plus slugging percentage). He has 42 hits in 129 at-bats, with 11 doubles and one triple.
He said he knew his performance at the double-A level was not going unnoticed by the parent Chicago Cubs, so Monday's news was not unexpected.
"I was playing well, so you always want good things to happen," said Young, while waiting for his plane at the Knoxville airport.
"It's great, it's exciting. It doesn't change anything I've been doing and it doesn't change how I've been going about playing. It's just a new team at a different level and I'm excited."
Drafted by the Cubs in the 15th round of the Major League Baseball draft in 2017, he's been in the organization ever since and he'll be greeted by familiar faces in the Iowa locker room.
"I know a lot of them, I've been with the Cubs for four or five years now, so anywhere they send me I'll know a few people, that's for sure," he said. "You're one call away now (from the majors) and that's where you want to be. You want to be with the best and you want to be competing to be in the big leagues."
Young occasionally draws assignments in the outfield but has played most of his 35 games this season at first base. On June 30, he returned from a shoulder injury that forced him out of the lineup for nearly two months and has been one of the Smokies' most consistent players since then.
"Maybe in some ways the injury helped," Young said. "Maybe it cleared my mind or help something in my body click, but I feel good right now and I'm excited to see where it takes me."
He’ll join his Iowa teammates in Nebraska where they start a six-game series Tuesday against the Omaha Storm Chasers. Having grown up representing his home city playing for the Prince George Knights, he becomes the first P.G. player ever to earn a call-up to a triple-A baseball team.
He leaves behind a Smokies' team that sits in fourth place in the Double-A South North Division with a 35-45 record, 7 1/2 games behind first-place Birmingham. He loved his time in Tennessee and how he was treated by the team and the fans, but he's not planning on going back to play there.
"I'm going to stay up, that's my plan, I plan on going up and I plan on going farther," he said. "I had a great time there and it was a wonderful couple months but I'm excited for what's ahead."
