Cole Young Is Heating Up — And Nobody's Paying Attention

Cole Young just went 3-for-6 with a homer and 5 RBI on September 12th, capping a torrid stretch that has his 7-day wOBA sitting at .460. That's not a typo. The 12%-rostered second baseman in Seattle is flashing the best numbers of his season, and the mainstream fantasy world hasn't noticed yet. No major publication is talking about him. WaiverScout is.

The Rolling Window Story

The data here tells a clean story of a hitter figuring things out in real time. Over the last 30 days, Young's wOBA sat at a pedestrian .276 with a .198 average — replacement-level production that had us classifying him as deprioritize on August 30th. But zoom into the last seven days and the picture flips entirely:

  • 7-day wOBA: .460 vs .276 over 30 days
  • 7-day AVG: .400 vs .198 over 30 days
  • 7-day K%: 10.0% vs 20.6% over 30 days
  • 7-day Hard Hit%: 58.3% vs 30.9% over 30 days

That strikeout rate drop is the headline. Young cut his K% in half over the last week, and he did it across 20 plate appearances — not a two-game fluke. His 14-day numbers at 51 PA give us a solid sample to work with, and even there the trend is visible: a .357 wOBA and .289 average over two weeks show the improvement didn't start yesterday.

The Batted Ball Data Backs It Up

A .400 average means nothing if the contact quality isn't there. In Young's case, it is. His 7-day hard hit rate jumped to 58.3% with an average exit velocity of 89.8 mph. Compare that to his 30-day marks of 30.9% hard hit rate and 84.5 mph EV, and you're looking at a mechanical or approach adjustment that's producing materially better contact. This isn't a BABIP mirage — the ball is coming off his bat harder.

Over the last five games, Young has reached base in every contest, striking out just twice in 20 at-bats. He's been getting consistent playing time with 20 PA in the last seven days, which removes the platoon risk that can tank speculative adds.

WaiverScout Has Been Tracking This

We first flagged Young as a watch back on April 22nd at 13% ownership. We upgraded him to add now in early August when he showed a similar flash. The signal cooled and we downgraded to deprioritize on August 30th. Now the numbers are surging again — and this time the underlying quality metrics are stronger than anything we've seen from him previously. A 58.3% hard hit rate paired with a 10.0% strikeout rate is the kind of combination that sustains.

The Ownership Window

At 12% rostered with no ownership velocity — meaning the adds haven't started yet — this is a window, not a door that's already closing. If you're in a league where the second base landscape is thin, Young presents more upside right now than widely-rostered options like Gleyber Torres or Brandon Lowe, who aren't producing this caliber of contact quality. Marcus Semien is the clear tier above, but Young's current production puts him in the conversation as a streaming option with upside.

Verdict: Watch

The classification is Watch. The 7-day surge is real and the batted ball data supports it, but we need to see the strikeout rate stay suppressed and the hard hit numbers hold over a larger window before this becomes an add-now call. If Young's 14-day hard hit rate climbs toward that 58.3% mark over the next week, we'll upgrade. For now, get him on your watchlist immediately — if you wait for the consensus to catch up, the 12% ownership window will be gone.