'It's part of the story': Young determined to move forward after scary concussion

NEW YORK -- Jared Young’s memories of Sept. 17 end around the second inning.

Young remembers his first at-bat against the Phillies, a flyout to right-center. He remembers his first defensive play, a tag of Luis Arraez on a bouncing ball to his right. Then everything in Young’s memory goes dark.

He doesn’t remember his second at-bat, which took place half an inning before his accident. He doesn’t remember the Justin Crawford grounder that both he and Nolan McLean pursued. He doesn’t recall McLean’s knee slamming into his head, knocking him unconscious on the dirt near first base. He doesn’t remember being carted off the field, nor giving a thumbs up to the Citi Field crowd as he departed.

“It was like I woke up from a nap in the hospital,” Young said. “And I was like, ‘Whoa. How did I get here?’”

In a telephone interview Wednesday, Young, for the first time, publicly discussed the concussion and related injuries that ended his season. Almost two weeks removed from his collision with McLean, Young is home in Phoenix, recouping but enjoying bits of normalcy. He goes for walks, stretches his muscles, practices yoga. Before the Mets’ season ended, Young spent his days reading books or doing crossword puzzles outside. Screen time was tolerable only in small doses, so Young tried to avoid his phone and save his allotment until the evening, when he would watch the Mets play.

“How quick baseball can turn into life,” Young said. “It was a scary thing, but it’s real. I cared about getting a hit that morning. I wanted to win that game, and I wanted to hit a home run and celebrate with my teammates. Very quickly did [that change to] I just wanted to get home.”

The collision with McLean, which both players called unavoidable, left Young with a concussion, a stiff neck due to whiplash, and some lingering hearing issues, all of which he believes will dissipate soon. Several days after the accident, Young returned to Arizona, where he began regularly seeing concussion, neck and hearing specialists. When he’s not shuttling to and from appointments, Young rests as much as possible.

On the night of his accident, about two hours after arriving at the hospital in New York, Young began to make new memories again. The hours around the collision, however, will always be lost to him.

In the hospital, Young asked his wife multiple times if he had any hits in the game. He watched replays of his second at-bat and of the play with McLean, though Young had little interest in seeing himself being lashed to a stretcher. Sometimes, Young feels like he remembers other portions of the night, only to realize they are “fake memories” forged from watching clips of the game.

“It was just a super strange, scary night,” Young said. “But more scary for the other people."

In the days and weeks that followed, Young leaned on the stoicism of his wife Julia, who was watching that night with McLean’s wife, Avery. Julia in turn accepted advice from Sean Manaea’s wife, Talat, a former EMT who coached her on what to expect. Shortly after Young was released from the hospital, the couple returned to Citi Field to pick up Young’s car. Julia was the one who encouraged Young to go inside and reassure McLean that he was all right. McLean wound up coming out to give Julia a hug as well.

“That was huge for me,” McLean said recently, “just the comfort of knowing he’s OK.”

Though the concussion and related injuries still affect Young, he takes solace in the knowledge that he should not only be fully recovered in time for Spring Training, but also to have a relatively normal offseason. At this point in a typical year, Young wouldn’t be doing much anyway, other than resting his body after the grind of a long season. His injuries should heal before his 2027 prep begins.

While this isn’t how the 31-year-old Young envisioned the end of his breakout season, which included a .266 average, nine home runs and a .759 OPS, he’s not shying away from the reality of his situation.

“It’s part of the story,” Young said. “I’ve persevered through worse than this.”

Just to reach this point in his career, Young spent the better part of a decade grinding in the Minors after being drafted in the 15th round of the 2017 Draft by the Cubs and working to stick in the Majors with them. At one point, he even moved to Korea to reestablish his value. Just as he was finding a groove back stateside with the Mets, Young suffered his concussion.

To him, it’s merely another challenge to overcome. Earlier this week, president of baseball operations David Stearns lauded Young’s “really good second half of the season when we gave him consistent playing time.” While the Mets could still acquire help from outside the organization, Young figures to receive a fair shot to reprise his role as their everyday first baseman against right-handed pitchers in 2027.

That’s how Young prefers to be seen. Two weeks removed from the collision, he bemoans the fact that anyone who Googles his name now sees photos of him strapped to a stretcher.

“I’m proud of my season,” Young said. “I know there was more in there. I wish I could have shown that, but everyone’s going to say that, and it just gives you motivation for next year.

“I really don’t want to let this define the season that I had. … It’s part of the game, and it’s unfortunately somewhat what we signed up for. I just hope it never happens again.”