MINNEAPOLIS -- Cole Young and Josh Naylor were eons away from the Majors when they got their first taste of Target Field during All-Star Week back in 2014.
And that made their game-sealing hits in the Mariners’ 7-1 win on Tuesday night feel nostalgically full circle.
Young punched an opposite-field RBI single during the seventh inning that pushed Seattle ahead for the first time in this series. Then Naylor delivered the dagger with a massive three-run homer that featured a bat flip appropriate for the moment in the eighth.
And they each did so from the left side of a batter’s box that is more familiar to each than you’d think.
Young took part in the Pitch, Hit & Run Competition at this venue just weeks before his 11th birthday, and Naylor was here for the MLB Junior Home Run Derby at the ripe age of 17.
“Hitting a ball and seeing it fly in a big league stadium,” Young recalled, “just gave me the idea like, 'I want to do this when I'm older. I want to come back to a stadium when I get older and do it.'”
These showcase events were early forecasts of the types of hitters that each would blossom into, as both became first-round selections in the MLB Draft -- and are now key cogs in the Mariners’ lineup.
Naylor, obviously older, was closer to professional ball and as such more projectable. He wound up being selected No. 12 overall by the Marlins in the 2015 Draft, then was traded to the Padres, Guardians and Mariners.
Young would earn prospect pedigree, too, but later. He was taken by the Mariners with the No. 21 overall pick in the 2022 Draft and reached The Show last May 31, also against these Twins but in Seattle, when he delivered a walk-off single on his very first day.
In many ways, much of their national exposure started right here in Minnesota -- and way back when.
“It's wild,” Young said. “I don't remember a ton [from when] I was 10 years old coming here. But yeah, it's surreal, and it's super cool.”
That Midsummer Classic featured Félix Hernández starting for the American League and a host of Mariners reserves, including second baseman Robinson Canó, third baseman Kyle Seager and reliever Fernando Rodney.
My oh my, how things have changed.
Young did not meet Naylor at the festivities a dozen years ago, which makes sense given that he’d just finished fourth grade and Naylor was going into his senior year of high school. But all these years later -- and despite drastically different personalities -- they’ve actually become quite close.
Young is the more easygoing guy, and during his rookie season last year, he just wanted to fit in. Naylor plays with edge but is far more personable in the clubhouse. The two struck up a relationship over video games in Spring Training, and it has become part of their routine on the road.
Their game of choice is EA Sports NHL 26, and they can log late hours. Naylor has a portable console that he brings on the team charter, and the two will congregate in his hotel room -- where competition as teammates on the diamond spills over to counterparts on the joysticks.
“He grew a lot this spring,” Naylor said. “He asked a lot of questions. He gained a lot of knowledge. He worked his butt off in early work, pregame stuff, postgame. I mean, he's doing phenomenal, because he's putting in the work.”
It’s a bromance that’s still evolving, and it should last for the next half-decade.
The ink is barely dry on the five-year, $92.5 million contract that Naylor signed in November, a deal that came together through the front office’s lens for his personality fit as much as his on-field production.
Young, meanwhile, has long been viewed as Seattle’s second baseman of the future, and he’s living up to that billing in every way this season.
Tuesday’s game marked Young’s fifth straight in which he registered an RBI, making him one of just four players to do so before turning 23. The others are Ken Griffey Jr. (six times), Alex Rodriguez (four times) and Ruppert Jones. Young’s 16 RBIs for the season trail only Cal Raleigh’s 17 on the Mariners, and he’s doing so primarily out of the lineup’s No. 8 spot.
Moreover, Young is under club control through 2031, one year after Naylor’s deal expires.
They have a history together dating back to that All-Star Week, and potentially more history in front of them as long-term franchise fixtures.