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Cubs prospect Young getting back in the swing of things

After year-long pandemic pause, Prince George Youth Baseball product getting ready for fourth pro season

It’s been a long year since Jared Young had the rug pulled out from under his feet, along with thousands of other professional baseball players trying to make the jump from the minor leagues to the majors.

The pandemic cancelled all minor league seasons in 2020 and Young, a 25-year-old Prince George native trying to make that climb in the Chicago Cubs organization, suddenly found himself without a place to play.

Twelve months later, Young is back on the spring training field at Sloan Park in Mesa, Ariz., getting in the swing of things again to prepare a season that starts May 4. He’s not sure where he'll be playing this year but when the dust settles he'll be ready fpr that opening pitch.

“Things are rolling now,” said Young. “It was definitely strange having a year off.

“There was a lot of uncertainty, a lot of wondering how this is going to be because we haven’t played in a while, but it’s come back to me pretty quick and it’s just so amazing to be here.”

Listed at six-foot-two, 185-pounds, Young spent the 2019 season with the double-A Tennessee Smokies and he would love a chance to return to the Knoxville suburb of Sevierville to stick together with his Tennessee teammates.

“I’m a little bit bigger and stronger and that’s definitely going to help as we get going,” he said. “Having the year off to not play and not really do anything, that was one thing I really focused on and hopefully it pays dividends. I’ve probably gained 10 pounds. I’ve worked on staying limber and getting bigger and that’s going to help over 152 games, you definitely have to have some weight on you.”

Playing mostly at first base and sometimes in the outfield his average dropped to .235 in his first year of double-A, moving up from the high-A level the previous season with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Young was held to five home runs in 123 games after hitting 16 round-trippers combined with Myrtle Beach/South Bend in 2018.

The Cubs extended Young’s season when they selected him for their Arizona Fall League team – the Mesa Solar Sox – and he played a six-week schedule that ended in October 2019. Dating back to his youth baseball days in Prince George, the 25-year-old has always had the ability to hit well and he’s anxious to prove that again in his fourth season of professional baseball.

“It’s been over a year since I’ve played,” said Young. “This is a whole new year and it’s time to get going. I just keep getting better, I think. You get a little bit better every year and see where it takes you.

“Everyone is pumped, everyone was in the same boat. You take something away from someone for year and obviously they’re going to be pumped when it’s back. I’m excited to get going and I can’t wait to see where it takes me.”

Young first caught the eye of the Cubs’ scouts in his junior year of college when he was knocking the cover off the ball at Old Dominion in Virginia. Picked by Chicago in the 15th round in the 2017 MLB draft, he decided to forego his senior year of school and signed his first professional contract. He started out with the Northwest League Eugene Emeralds for the 2017 season and was re-assigned the following year to the South Bend Cubs, when they were a Low-A team. He got called up to Myrtle Beach in July 2018 and finished the season averaging .300 at the plate for the season. The Cubs chose him as their minor league position player of the year and one of the perks was an all –expense-paid trip for him and his Prince George family to a Cubs game at Wrigley Field, where he was introduced to the Chicago crowd.

The 25-year-old Young has had two major league assignments,. He was on the Cubs' roster that started spring training in 2019 and 2020. In his first major league at-bat in March 2019 he hit a home run, and duplicated the feat that spring in his third MLB exhibition game. Chicago’s spring training this year was limited to just players at the major league/triple-A levels to limit potential exposures.

The pandemic hit the sports world a year ago in March when Utah Jazz forward Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 and the NBA was the first North American pro league to shut down its season. Baseball responded a couple days later by sending its players home and the NHL followed suit. Young remained in Arizona and it wasn’t until June 30 the minor league seasons were scuttled. MLB played a 60-game season that started on July 23.

The absence of minor league revenues from the lost season resulted in the elimination of 40 teams this year, most at lower levels.  All the remaining minor leagues have been revamped in new divisional alignments – two divisions in triple-A and three divisions in each of the double-A, high single-A and low single-A leagues. Teams will play each other in six-game weekly series to minimize travel and reduce costs.

Chicago’s top farm team, the Iowa Cubs, will play in a seven-team Triple-A Midwest Division, the Tennessee Smokies are part of the Double-A South ‘s four-team  North Division, the South Bend Cubs will play in the High-A Central’s six-team West Division, while the Myrtle Beach Pelicans have switched from High-A to Low-A in the realignment and will compete in the 10-team Low-A East League.

The 6,000 minor league players were not paid in 2020, other than monthly stipends provided by the parent teams. Young stayed in Arizona where he could train year-round outdoors and he used his signing bonus to cover his living expenses. He lives in nearby Scottsdale with his girlfriend Julia and their apartment is a 15-minute drive from the ballpark in Mesa. She works in software sales and wasn’t much baseball fan before they met.

“She is now,” said Young. “She’s learned a lot in this last year-and-a-half and I’ve got to give her kudos for that because she’s watched a lot of baseball with me.”

NOTE: An earlier version of this story posted on this website contained incorect information about where Young will be assigned to start the season.