Jared Young is swinging a hot bat these days with the Tennessee Smokies.
So far this month, the 26-year-old from Prince George has tallied two home runs and 12 RBI’s to go along with 23 hits.
Young is looking to parlay his recent performance into a late-season call-up with the Chicago Cubs.
“If you play well people will notice. Other than that everything is out of my hands and if you try and focus on it too much your head will get cloudy and you will not have success but if you keep playing hard and you keep putting up good numbers everything will take care of itself.”
“Swinging and missing is a big thing in today’s baseball and it doesn’t get you very far. Strikeouts give you no chance to get a hit so a little extra emphasis on putting the ball in play and things have taken care of themselves after that.”
Young added it’s nice to be playing every day after missing two months with a shoulder injury.
“It was super difficult (to miss time) because I hadn’t played in a year and a half because of COVID and then I had to sit out another couple of months. I was super frustrated and once I got over that and was a few weeks away from playing I got really excited and treated it like opening day.”
The Smokies are 8.5 games back of the Chattanooga Lookouts for the top spot in the Double-A South League’s North Division.
Even though Tennessee remains in the basement Young believes the second half of the season could be fruitful.
“There’s a ton of time left. We have a few months and we just hit the halfway point and you see teams flip the standings at the halfway point all the time so I think we have plenty of good baseball left in us.”
“Things are turning around as some guys are getting healthy while other guys are starting to play like we really know they can. Once we get things clicking I think we can be a really good team.”
The 26-year-old noted being a part of a ballpark atmosphere once again has given him and his teammates a sense of normality.
“We definitely took it for granted before but when we came back it was like wow this is really special and this is what it’s supposed to be like. It gives you a different perspective on it and makes you appreciate it a little more.”
The Smokies are 9-6 during the month of July.
In addition, Young was named the Cubs Minor League Player of the Year in 2018.