Former Chicago Cubs prospect Jared Young was stretchered off Citi Field Thursday night following a scary collision with rookie pitcher Noah McLean. Young was struck on the side of his head in the sixth inning when a slow ground ball hit toward first base caused a bit of confusion between him and McLean. Unfortunately, McLean’s left knee hit Young after a last-second effort to avoid contact in the New York Mets’ series opener against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Young was on the infield dirt motionless for several minutes before medical staff escorted him off the field. He was put in a neck brace and then placed on a stretcher.
Young was able to give a thumbs up to the crowd as he was coming off the field and on Friday the Mets provided an encouraging update on the 31-year-old player.
Via the Mets.
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Young signed with the Mets after spending the 2024 season playing first at Triple-A in the St. Louis Cardinals organization before signing with the Doosan Bears in the KBO. The left-handed hitter only played in 22 games for the Mets in 2025, but he made this year’s Opening Day roster. A torn meniscus stopped his early momentum this season, sidelining Young for nearly seven weeks after starting the year with an .841 OPS through 10 games.
Overall this season, Young has recorded a .266/.330/.429 slash line in 342 plate appearances for the Mets, with nine home runs and a 111 wRC+ in 103 games.
The Cubs selected Young in the 15th round of the 2017 MLB Draft out of Old Dominion. He reached the big leagues in 2022, getting a cup of coffee in September, then played 16 games for the Cubs in 2023, hitting two home runs, including one in his season debut at Wrigley Field.
Andy Green is the Mets’ current interim manager, but before his time in New York, he worked with Young after spending four seasons as the bench coach on David Ross’ staff with the Cubs. Green shared a special story about Young on Friday, showing just how much passion the Canadian-born player has for the game of baseball.
“We sent him down on the last day of the minor league season in Chicago one year. There was one more minor-league game the next day and we said, ‘don’t worry about it. You can go on home.’ This guy likes to play so much, he said, ‘can I drive to Iowa and play?’ If you want to, but you can be done. I’ve never had a player do that in that situation. Most people are like, ‘I’m leaving the big leagues, good – let’s call it a season, let’s move on. It’s good enough.’ He texted the Triple-A manager and said, ‘I’m coming. I want to play. Can you put me in the lineup?’ He hit a walk-off home run that day to end the minor league season. It’s just indicative of the type of person he is, how much he loves being on the baseball field. He’s loved in that clubhouse. He was loved in the Triple-A clubhouse. Any place he is, he’s thought really highly of. He’s just a great guy who had a great season, exceeded a lot of people’s expectations. I don’t think he exceeded mine at all, having had a lot of time with him through the years. I’ve believed all of this was possible and even more, but for him, I know it’s a disappointing way to miss out on the last ten days of the year.”
-Andy Green
Get well soon, Jared!
