| Michael Young | |
|---|---|
 Young with the Texas Rangers in 2009 | |
| Infielder | |
| Born: (1976-10-19)October 19, 1976 (age 49) Covina, California, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| September 29, 2000, for the Texas Rangers | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| September 29, 2013, for the Los Angeles Dodgers | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .300 |
| Hits | 2,375 |
| Home runs | 185 |
| Runs batted in | 1,030 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Michael Brian Young (born October 19, 1976) is an American former professionalbaseballinfielder who played 14 seasons inMajor League Baseball (MLB) for theTexas Rangers,Philadelphia Phillies, andLos Angeles Dodgers. Since 2014, Young has worked in the Rangers’ front office as a Special Assistant to the General Manager. Originally asecond baseman, the versatile Young was a five-timeAll-Star atshortstop, once atthird base, and once as a combinationdesignated hitter /utility infielder. He was the 2005American League (AL) batting champion.
Young played baseball in high school atBishop Amat Memorial High School and in college atUniversity of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara). He was originally drafted by theBaltimore Orioles in1994, but elected to return to college and was eventually drafted in1997 by theToronto Blue Jays. After spending several seasons in the minor leagues with the Blue Jays, Young was traded to the Rangers, where he spent over a decade. While with the Rangers, Young set several club records in offensive statistical categories, includingruns scored andtotal bases. In 2016, Young was inducted into theTexas Rangers Hall of Fame. In 2019, Young'sNo. 10 was retired by the Rangers.
Young attendedBishop Amat Memorial High School[1] inLa Puente, California, followed by theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara, to which he later donated money to refurbish the school's baseball field.[2]
Young was drafted by theBaltimore Orioles in the 25th round of the1994 Major League Baseball draft but did not sign. Three years later theToronto Blue Jays selected him in the fifth round of the1997 Major League Baseball draft. Young signed with the Blue Jays, who traded him in 2000 with pitcherDarwin Cubillán to the Rangers forEsteban Loaiza while Young was still in their minor league system.[3]
Young made his professional debut in 1997 with theSt. Catharines Blue Jays in theNew York–Penn League (NY-Penn) (short-season A). Among his achievements in the NY-Penn League were a 16-game hitting streak, tying for fifth with 48 RBIs, and tying for third in the league with 136 total bases. In 1998, he spent the season with theHagerstown Suns of theSouth Atlantic League. Playing second base, he led all players at his position in fielding percentage. 1999 would be an all-star season for Young. Playing for theDunedin Blue Jays of theFlorida State League, he earned spots on both the midseason and postseason all-star teams by leading the league in doubles and finishing fourth in batting average and hits, .313 and 155 respectively. After the regular season, he played for the Rancho Cucamonga Surfers in theCalifornia Fall League. He split 2000 between Double-A and Triple-A and,[citation needed] on July 19, was traded to the Rangers withDarwin Cubillán forEsteban Loaiza.[4] The Rangers purchased his contract on September 27. He played the final five games of the season in the majors making his debut as apinch runner. Though he began 2001 in Triple-A, he was recalled to the majors on May 25 and did not return to the minors during the season.[5]
Young reached the Majors briefly in 2000, playing 2nd and getting two at-bats. He hit .249 in 106 games as a second baseman in 2001. In 2002, Young placed second in fielding among second basemen with a .988fielding percentage. In 2003, Young was 3rd in the league inhits with 204 and led allsecond baseman with abatting average of .306. Young had a fielding percentage of .987.
After signing a new contract,[6] Young moved toshortstop, filling the hole left by the departure of regular Ranger's shortstopAlex Rodriguez in 2004, to make room for newly acquired second basemanAlfonso Soriano. He was second in theAmerican League in hits with 216 andat bats with 690, fourth inruns with 114, and ninth in batting with an average of .313.[7] He spent 89 games hitting in the leadoff spot, the last time in his career that he hit leadoff before 2013.[8]
Young won the AL batting title in 2005 with an average of .331 and was first in MLB in hits with 221. He was second in AL in at-bats with 668, and his 114 runs were fifth-best. Young also established a career-high inhome runs with 24. Young's 91 RBIs placed him second among all shortstops in the AL.[9]
On February 14, 2006, Young and Rangers teammateMark Teixeira were selected to theUnited States roster for the2006 World Baseball Classic.[10]
After the2006 MLB All-Star Game held atPNC Park inPittsburgh, Young was awarded theMajor League Baseball All-Star Game MVP Award after hitting a game-winning two-runtriple in the ninth inning.[11] Young led the American League in fielding percentage at shortstop with .981. Young also played all 162 games of the 2006 season, had 217 hits and topped 100 RBI for the first time in his career.[12]
In March 2007, Young agreed to an $80 million contract extension that would have kept him with the Rangers until 2013.[6][13]
Young finished the 2007 season with a batting average of .315, which led the Rangers and was 11th-highest in the AL. Young also led the Rangers with 94 RBIs and was second among all shortstops in the AL. Young was second on the team and tied a career-high instolen bases with 13. Young's 201 hits were 4th in the AL, and marked the 5th consecutive 200-hit season, joiningIchiro Suzuki andWade Boggs as the only players to do so since 1940 and just the second middleinfielder, along withCharlie Gehringer, to have accomplished that feat.
Young played in the longest All-Star game in history. He drove in the game-winning RBI with a walk-off sacrifice fly in the2008 MLB All-Star Game after four hours and 40 minutes of playing time. Also, in 2008 Young won theGold Glove at shortstop for theAmerican League.
In 2009, Young moved to third base to make room for shortstop prospectElvis Andrus.[14] The Rangers did not consult Young on this, and he requested a trade. He subsequently rescinded the request.[15] On April 19, 2009, Young hit his first career walk-off home run, off Royals pitcherKyle Farnsworth.[16] Young was voted on the AL 2009All Star team by the players.
On June 16, 2010, Young hit a ground ball up the middle to collect his 1,748th career hit and passedIván Rodríguez to become the Rangers' career leader in hits.[17] On defense, in 2010 he tied for the AL lead in errors by a third baseman, with 19, and had the lowest fielding percentage among them, at .950.[18]
During the 2010–11 offseason, Young said that the Rangers had "misled and manipulated" him and requested a trade.[19] The Rangers, having acquired free agent third basemanAdrián Beltré, planned to have Young be the team's primarydesignated hitter as well as autility infielder, and see time atfirst base for the first time in his career. He was a 2011 American League All Star.[20]
On August 7, 2011, Young hit an infield single againstJosh Tomlin of the Cleveland Indians for his 2,000th career hit.[21]
In 2011, Young batted .338 (3rd in the American League) with 11 home runs, primarily splitting his time between DH (69 games), third base (40 games), and first base (36 games).[20] He tied withAdrián González for the AL lead in hits (213), and was 5th in RBIs (106) and sacrifice flies (9), 8th in on-base percentage (.380), and 10th in doubles (41).[20]
After Young struggled in the 2012 season, the Rangers asked if he desired a trade as they planned to cut his playing time for the 2013 season. Young did not request one, though the Rangers began to pursue a trade, and eventually traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies.[15]
Since being traded in 2012, the Rangers had not issued Young's uniform number 10 to any player or coach. On June 18, 2019, the Rangers announced they would retire Young's number 10 jersey in August.[22]
At the time of his departure from the team, Young led the Rangers in several stat categories including games played (1774), hits (2178), doubles (406), triples (55), runs scored (1057), at bats (7221), strikeouts (1132), extra-base hits (632), and total bases (3210).[23] He was third all-time inruns batted in (RBIs) with 962 and sixth all-time in home runs with 172.[23] He also held several single-season records including most multi-hit games (70 in 2004), most hits (221 in 2005), doubles (52 in 2006), and at bats and plate appearances in 2006 (691 and 748 respectively).[23]
Young agreed to waive his no-trade clause and on December 9, 2012, he was traded to the Phillies in exchange for pitcherJosh Lindblom and minor league pitcherLisalverto Bonilla. The deal reunited him with former teammatesLaynce Nix,Cliff Lee andMike Adams.[24][25] The Phillies were monitoring Young for some time before his acquisition. Their former Hall of Fame third basemanMike Schmidt said, "we got aDerek Jeter kind of player on our team all of a sudden ... He's two or three Michael Young years away from being a Hall of Famer, first ballot maybe." Phillies general managerRubén Amaro, Jr. and managerCharlie Manuel also were fond of Young and made him a target heading into theWinter Meetings. Once they agreed to a deal, Young had to approve it, which he did, later mentioning that he would only have done so to go to a winning team like the Phillies. The Phillies viewed Young as a stop-gap to get them to top prospectCody Asche.[26]
In 126 games with the Phillies, he hit .276 with 8 homers and 42 RBI. However, the Phillies did not turn out to be the "winning team" that Young had expected. On August 31, the Phillies' record stood at 62–74, and they were21+1⁄2 games out of first place and 14 games out of the last available playoff spot. He was traded to theLos Angeles Dodgers. Upon leaving Philadelphia, Young released a statement in which he thanked the Phillies and said that he "had a blast" playing in Philadelphia and that he would recommend it "in a heartbeat" to any other player.[27] Phillies players, namely younger players such asDarin Ruf andCody Asche, commented that they loved having a veteran like Young to whom they could look up and seek advice from. Ruf said, "He was the type of guy to come up to a younger guy like myself or Cody and tell us a thing or two about what he thinks we need to do and how he thinks we could prolong our careers. He was just a great teammate to have around."[28]
On August 31, 2013, he was traded to theLos Angeles Dodgers for minor league pitcherRob Rasmussen.[29] In the last year of his contract, Young again waived his no-trade clause to join his hometown team for an expected playoff run.[30] Young was acquired to be a backup infielder and provide a veteran presence on the team.[30] Young made his Dodgers debut on September 1, 2013pinch hitting in a game against theColorado Rockies.[31] He appeared in 21 games for the Dodgers at a variety of positions and hit .314. Young played his last regular-season game in the major leagues on September 29, exactly 13 years to the day he made his major league debut.
After initially considering some offers as a free agent (reportedly as a bench player), Young announced his retirement from baseball on January 31, 2014[32][33][34]
In 1970 games over 14 seasons, Young posted a .300batting average (2375-for-7918) with 1137runs, 441doubles, 60triples, 185home runs, 1030RBI, 90stolen bases, 575bases on balls, .346on-base percentage and .441slugging percentage. He finished his career with a .979fielding percentage playing at all four infield positions. In 43 postseason games, he batted .238 (36-for-151) with 11 runs, 10 doubles, 3 home runs, 19 RBI and 5 walks.[20]
On November 5, 2014, Young was hired by theTexas Rangers as a special assistant to general managerJon Daniels. He played a key role in the offseason acquisition ofIan Desmond in 2016.[35]
On July 30, 2016, Young was inducted into theTexas Rangers Baseball Hall of Fame in a pregame ceremony before the team's matchup with the Kansas City Royals.[36]
Young was eligible to be elected into the Hall of Fame in 2019, but received less than 5% of the vote and became ineligible for the 2020 ballot.
On August 31, 2019, theTexas Rangers retired Michael Young's #10.[37]
Young served as the manager for the National League team in the 2024All-Star Futures Game.[38]
Young's mother is of Mexican descent. Young met his wife Cristina, alsoMexican-American, in high school. They have three sons named Mateo, Emilio, and Antonio respectively. Young is a cousin of formerWBOLight Welterweight boxing championZack Padilla.[39][40] Another cousin, Jason Young, played minor league baseball.
Young is aphilanthropist. He and his wife are sponsors of the Wipe Out Kids' Cancer campaign.[41] In 2006, Young began the Young Heroes Scholarship Program, and in 2010, the Michael Young Family Hispanic Scholarship Program was established. In July 2011, Young and his wife announced the launch of the Michael Young Family Foundation, a charity that supports the involvement of children's health in all areas: physical social, mental, and educational.[42] Young is represented by baseball agentDan Lozano.[43]
Young is a two-time winner of theMarvin Miller Man of the Year Award winning in 2008 and 2011.[44] He is one of only five players who have won multiple times (John Smoltz,Jim Thome,Curtis Granderson, andMarcus Semien).[5][45] In 2021, he donated $50,000 to help with the restoration of theReverchon Park Ball Field in Dallas.[46] Young's hobbies includebilliards and golf.[47]
