SAN DIEGO — Before Mike Tauchman suffered a meniscus tear in the final week of spring training, it seemed unlikely that Jared Young would make the Mets’ Opening Day roster. Tauchman had outperformed Young, who was hitting .150 in eight games.
But by the time Young went down with his own meniscus tear on April 12, with the Mets mired in what would become a 12-game losing streak, there was real worry about how the team would survive without him. He had a .295/.373/.500 slash line, two homers and five RBIs in his first 19 games.
Frankly, there was real worry about how the Mets would survive, period, given the fact that they weren’t hitting and they weren’t playing good defense — all notoriously important parts of being a good baseball team.
“It sucked,” Young told Newsday about the ill-timed injury Friday before a game against the Padres in which he hit cleanup and played first base. “There’s not really [anything you can do keep your timing]. You can’t really replicate at-bats and I can’t take any when I was able to move my legs, so there wasn’t a whole bunch I could do.”
But . . .
“Being stubborn in baseball’s not always a bad thing.”
And Young, who outwardly fits the profile of the mild-mannered Canadian, has learned to be stubborn.
He was stubborn when he was placed on outright waivers by the Cubs in 2023 after playing 22 games with them over the course of two years, stubborn when he resuscitated his career by playing in Korea for a season, stubborn during his 43-day injury recovery, when he could have worried that he wouldn’t be able to sustain his early returns, and stubborn in the batter’s box now.
The lefthanded-hitting utilityman went into Friday’s game hitting .250 with five runs, one double, two homers, three RBIs and four walks in eight games since returning from the injured list. He is a legitimate weapon against righthanded pitchers, batting .333 against them with five extra-base hits.
Though he hit .300 in 75 games with Triple-A Syracuse last year, his 22 games with the Mets were uninspiring. He struggled against the fastball, hitting .190 against the pitch. This year, he’s hitting fastballs at a .467 clip. He doesn’t miss pitches in the strike zone, swinging on more than 70% of pitches in the zone and hitting more than 77% of them. And he consistently hits the ball hard, so even though he’s elevating the ball less, they’re also finding holes.
“He’s shorter to the ball, on time,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “There was some swing and miss from him [last year], especially against that pitch at the top of the zone, but we’ve seen him make some adjustments and that’s what good hitters do, and I think the more that he continues to get opportunities, the more he continues to play, [it] allows him to make those adjustments.”
And those opportunities should keep coming.
Mark Vientos, the Mets’ primary option at first base, has scuffled on defense and hasn’t hit righties well, batting .190 against them. Jorge Polanco, who was in play to be activated Friday, will remain in Triple-A Syracuse for the time being as the Mets want him to “continue to build volume there,” Mendoza said. Even when he returns, he’ll primarily serve as a designated hitter.
So here is Young, hoping to build off early returns.
“It’s staying in the zone, being ready to hit and being ready to hit early — those are a couple things that will breed success,” Young said.
That’s probably a good universal strategy, considering that Mendoza has noted that his team has a tendency to miss hittable pitches early in counts.
“They weren’t always happy [at-bats],” Young said. “You’d have at-bats where things aren’t going your way, but it’s about not getting discouraged and knowing that the plan you brought in is going to work.”
Added Mendoza: “[He has] an ability to control the strike zone . . . He’s got pop, but he’s got a pretty good understanding of what pitchers are trying to do to him. It’s just good to see it and he’s been an impactful bat.”
Young said his time in the KBO helped.
“I think anywhere you go, you can learn from different people and the game is played a little bit different,” he said, adding that he saw a lot of off-speed pitches and that the smaller, stickier ball led to more spin. “You don’t see a whole lot of sinkers over there, so if you’re not getting fastballs, you’re going to have a tough time. I think it can help your approach . . . It led me to being a more well-rounded player.”
All of it has come together to imbue him with some needed confidence — something he could lean on when he got laid up.
Said Young, “There were times where I was like, this [rehab] is getting to be a little long or it doesn’t feel the same when you come back — your body’s doing different things and not as strong — definitely, my leg [in the beginning] wasn’t as strong as it was before, but you just find the new normal.”
So what did he lean on?
“Hope,” he said. And knowing that, when it is executed, his approach plays well.
“You get in the box and trust [the plan],” he said. “You don’t need to change the plan just because one at-bat didn’t go your way. That’s just how baseball is.”
The key, he said, is “believing in it a little more . . . It’s about being stubborn in the batter’s box.”
And out of it, too.
Notes & quotes: Francisco Alvarez (meniscus) will catch in back-to-back games with Triple-A Syracuse and is in play to rejoin the Mets on the upcoming homestand, Mendoza said . . .After his recent success, Sean Manaea is in play to pitch Sunday, either as a starter or with an opener.
Laura Albanese is the Mets beat writer for Newsday. She’s been covering MLB since 2014 after starting at Newsday as an intern seven years earlier.
