This Live Looks article will go somewhere that no Live Looks article has gone before. I made the trip up to Washington to check out the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers (SEA) and the Salt Lake Bees (LAA) series and also got to take in one of those games with PNW resident and fellow PL Evaluator Nate Rasmussen. We figured why not do a combined Live Looks article? Nate has seen the Mariners prospects come through the farm system and seen the ways they’ve grown as prospects, while I only have the three games I saw to go off of. This makes for a unique (and lengthy) piece where we touch on all aspects of what was a loaded series prospects wise. Here’s who stood out:     

Cole Young, INF SEA (MLB)

Will Thompson:

Cole Young was shredding Triple-A pitching for about a month prior to this series and that continued. He was a nightmare for the Salt Lake pitching staff, highlighted by a five-hit day during the Wednesday of this series and eventually led to him being pulled from the game on Friday and called up to the big leagues, where he is now the Mariners everyday second baseman for the moment. The offense has been slow since getting moved up, but he was extremely impressive for a 21-year-old and showed off many of the improvements at the plate that raised his stock this season. 

Young has a very smooth and rhythmic swing from the left side. The setup is a little unorthodox, but gets on-time to hit and has lightning quick hands. He crushed pitches on the inner half in my look at him, using his hands and above average bat speed to turn on balls down the line. His swing is compact and doesn’t have too much loft, prioritizing line drives and using the whole field as opposed to pulling and lifting. My favorite part about Young is his approach though. He doesn’t whiff often against fastballs or spin and has an excellent two-strike approach, spoiling pitches to extend at-bats and pouncing on mistakes. The power has ticked up this season for Young, but I think he projects out as a plus hit tool with 45 power at the big league level.

Young is a good athlete and I like his hands a lot in the infield, but below average range and a fringy arm makes me not think he’s capable of sticking at shortstop. He’s a much better fit at second base for me and has very smooth hands. He’s passable at shortstop and will make the routine plays, but I think over a large sample at shortstop in the big leagues the metrics would not be kind to him. Luckily, the Mariners have a shortstop with JP Crawford under contract through the 2026 season so Young should fit in well as the everyday second baseman. Overall, I’m confident in the 21-year-old’s ability to hit thanks to his excellent bat-to-ball skills and approach. He’s shown flashes of power, but I think of him more as a high on-base 2B who hits 15-18 home runs a season at this peak. I don’t think Young is a star, but he’s already quite polished and will be able to stick as an everyday middle infielder in the big leagues.  

Nate Rasmussen:

After seeing Young two years ago, he looked much more physical in 2025, as you’d expect from someone aging from a teenager to a 21-year-old. I think we would have seen more power out of Young the past two years if it wasn’t for him running a near 50% ground ball rate in 2025. He uses the whole field well and sees the ball deep consistently. Young had a habit of throwing his hands at off speed to collect cheap singles to the pull side early in his career, this year Young has consistently driven spin back up the middle and to the opposite field, showing me that his pitch recognition has taken a step up, along with his already good approach. Young’s under-the-hood MLB data has looked good enough that I think he’ll adjust to MLB pitching soon and be a solid contributor for the M’s down the stretch.

Harry Ford, C SEA (Triple-A)