Jared Young sent a text Monday afternoon to his mom in Prince George.
Young wanted his folks back home to know he made his Major League Baseball debut for the Chicago Cubs in a spring training game in Scottsdale, Ariz., against the San Diego Padres.
In the text, Young wrote:"Got to play in the MLB game. Got one at-bat today."
Then he attached a video of that one at-bat. Cubs first-round draft pick Nico Hoerner recorded the moment with his phone from the stands when Young stood in the batter's box to face Padres pitcher Ger Reyes in the seventh inning and clubbed a fly ball over the right-field fence for a two-run home run for a 6-1 lead.
First at-bat, first home run - not too shabby for a major league debut.
But Young, the 23-year-old Cubs first baseman, had much more in store in his second game with Chicago.
Friday afternoon in Mesa, Ariz., with the Cubs leading the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-0 in the seventh inning, Young stepped up to the plate to face Sam Lewis and with Cubs hitters Victor Caratini and Zach Short already aboard he smoked a line drive that carried over the wall and into the bleachers in left field. The three-run shot put the Cubs ahead 9-0 and they went on to win 10-2.
That raised Young's career MLB stats to four at-bats, two home runs, five runs batted in and an astounding 2.5 OPS (the sum of on-base percentage and slugging average).
If the six-foot-two, 185-pound Young keeps hitting like that he might soon be looking for an apartment in Chicago.
The story of the kid from Prince George who had to leave the city at 16 to chase down his baseball dreams just keeps getting better.
Young has proved he can hit at every level he's played. From Prince George he joined the B.C. Premier League's Okanagan Athletics in Kelowna, then went on to college ball at Minot State in North Dakota, Connors State in Oklahoma and Old Dominion in Virginia, where he played one season of NCAA Division 1.
He joined the Cubs organization after they drafted him in the 15th round in 2017 and started his pro career that year in the Northwest League with the Eugene Emeralds.
He began last season playing second base with the Class A South Bend (Ind.) Cubs of the Midwest League and in July was promoted to the Class A-Advanced Myrtle Beach (N.C.) Pelicans of the Carolina League, where he was moved to the outfield and first base.
In 120 games combined with South Bend and Myrtle Beach he put up a .300 batting average and .842 OPS with 76 runs batted in and 16 home runs.
The Cubs selected Young as their minor league player of the year for 2018.
