Young makes another Catch of the Year candidate

Jacob Young is no stranger to making incredible defensive plays in center field. Since becoming a full-time major leaguer last year, the 25-year-old has been one of the most electric outfielders in the sport.

So while it wasn’t a surprise Young made a miraculous catch to rob Will Benson of a home run yesterday, it was still a play that should draw plenty of praise. And a highlight that should be remembered from an otherwise forgettable 5-0 loss to the Reds.

With Cincinnati having already extended its lead to 3-0 in the eighth inning, it looked like Benson was going to add more with a two-run homer off Jackson Rutledge. He hit the right-hander's elevated first-pitch fastball 103.1 mph off the bat and it traveled 400 feet to straightaway center.

But he needed 401 feet to beat Young.

The 5-foot-11 center fielder ran back and climbed the wall with two literal steps to reach over and bring the ball back for the final out of the inning, sending a loud roar of approval from the crowd ringing across Nationals Park and putting a lot of astounded looks on players’ faces.

“Yeah obviously, you knew he hit it pretty well,” Young said of his grab after the loss. “Just when you go back there, you hope you have a chance. And it just worked out where the ball was just close enough to be able to reach over and grab it.”

“Unbelievable,” interim manager Miguel Cairo said. “That will be one of the best ones of this year so far. That was awesome.”

Per Statcast, the flyout had an expected batting average of .840, the highest of any ball struck in yesterday’s game that didn’t land for a base hit. And it would have been a home run in five major league ballparks: Camden Yards, Progressive Field, Dodger Stadium, loanDepot park and T-Mobile Park.

You’ll notice, obviously, Nationals Park is not on that list. And you wonder if it truly would have been a homer in those parks if Young was roaming center field at the time.

Although he’s now made numerous grabs like that one, was Young still surprised he came down with it?

“I think you're always a little surprised,” he said. “You think you're gonna make it.”

Just three weeks ago, Young made a similar play to rob the Tigers’ Riley Greene of a homer. Which begs the question, which one was better?

“It happened so fast it's hard to tell,” Young said. “That one felt a little smoother than the Riley Greene one, I guess you could say. But anytime you can take a home run away from anybody, they all feel good.”

Young has made a name for himself in center. He had some of the best defensive metrics of any center fielder last year, with 12 Defensive Runs Saved and 20 Outs Above Average, per FanGraphs. But while he was named a finalist for the National League Glove Award in center, he lost out to the Rockies’ Brenton Doyle.

“His first step to go in any direction, any route, is unbelievable,” Cairo said of what makes Young so good defensively. “I think last year, I think he got robbed. He should have won the Gold Glove. And this year, he proved every day that he goes out there, you know that you got someone that can cover a lot of a lot of ground.”

“It's really just trying to make sure that you know where the wall is as you're tracking the ball,” Young said. “You don't have time to look at the wall as you're going up for the ball, so just trying to get an eye on the wall before you go up. And just trust your instincts and trust your training to go make a play.”

The most enjoyable part for Young isn’t even the catch itself. It’s the reactions he gets from his teammates and coaches. Among the more noticeable ones yesterday were Rutledge standing on the mound in disbelief and relief, pitching strategist Sean Doolittle at the top of the dugout in awe and Luis García Jr. at second base celebrating with joy.

“Yeah, it's honestly probably the best part,” Young said of the reactions. “It's more fun to see how everyone reacts to it. The pitchers, Doo, always Luis García, for sure. but it's fun to see the reaction. We're all big leaguers, so whenever you can make other big leaguers kind of ooh and aah, it feels good.”

But while he did impress Cairo, the interim skipper wasn’t ready to crown that the best catch he’s seen in all his years in baseball.

“I don't know if it was the best one, but that was pretty close,” Cairo said with a laugh. “That was amazing.”