Apr 28, 2024 By Chris Dugan 4 min read

The Wild Things completed their roster for spring training, which began Thursday, by re-signing three key pitchers from last season: Kobe Foster, Justin Goossen-Brown and Lukas Young.

That Young was among the final signings announced was somewhat appropriate. As the Wild Things’ closer, Young was the final pitcher to be given the baseball, the last player turned to for help, in many of Washington’s victories over the past two years.

Young has a 9-4 record and 34 saves during his time in Washington and has been among the Frontier League’s most reliable closers.

Though his signing was not announced until last week, Wild Things manager Tom Vaeth entered the offseason knowing that he didn’t need to find a new pitcher for the back end of his bullpen. Before the 2023 season ended, Young informed Washington that he was returning for another season. That decision didn’t surprise Vaeth, who said that Young is the type of player who will play until somebody takes away his uniform.

“He could have hung it up a long time ago and taken on other opportunities, but he wants to put a uniform on and play baseball,” Vaeth said. “Lukas loves being able to compete. He’s one of the first ones here every day. There’s a lot of passion with Lukas. You see it when he comes into games.”

Young has had plenty of opportunities to step away from baseball. They came at him almost every year during his time in the affiliated minor leagues. After being drafted in the 21st round by Boston in 2017 out of the University of Mobile, an NAIA school, he spent two years in the Red Sox system before being released. Four days later, he signed with Atlanta and spent 2019 in the Braves’ farm system before becoming a free agent.

He signed with Minnesota for 2020, but before that season was canceled because of the pandemic, Young suffered an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery, which kept him sidelined through 2021.

Without a team for 2022, Young turned to the independent ranks.

“I still had the phone number of the farm director with the Red Sox, so I called him and sent him a video of me pitching,” Young explained. “He sent the video to Tom. I was able to sign with the Wild Things, and it was late that year, spring training had already started.”

However, it didn’t take long for Young to move into the closer’s role. He had a 5-2 record, a sterling 1.66 ERA, 20 saves and 47 strikeouts in 43.1 innings in his first season with the Wild Things. Last year, Young was 4-2 with 14 saves but he wasn’t happy with his 4.36 ERA and Washington missing the Frontier League playoffs.

“I couldn’t end my career with that,” Young said. “There’s a little fire under the tail from last year. We know we can do better.

“What brought me back was the fact we had a pretty good squad last year and had some injuries, a rough couple of weeks. We went on a skid and it seemed like we couldn’t figure it out. Then Tom was able to bring a couple guys in later in the year and we turned it around and made a push at a playoff run.

“A lot of those guys are back this year,” he continued. “I knew they were coming back, so I knew this is going to be something fun to be a part of.”

So Young is back for another year as the Wild Things’ last line of defense.

“I just enjoy playing the game. It’s a childhood dream,” Young said. “I’ve gotten to the age where I understand that my odds of going back to affiliated ball are getting slimmer, but the fact that I have the opportunity to show up in a place I call home and still get to play a kids game and get paid, it keeps me coming back.”

While Washington is Young’s summer home, his real home is Mobile. Or as he jokingly says, “I’m from L.A. – Lower Alabama.”

Young, who is a faith-based person, has two passions: baseball and hunting. He loves to hunt deer and wild turkeys – he prefers deer hunting with a bow. He bagged bucks in four different states this season. The largest deer he has harvested is an 11-point that scored 153 inches.

He says there are parallels between hunting and pitching out of a jam late in a baseball game.

“In both of those, you’re trying to close the deal,” Young says. “Everything has to go right, and you have to execute a certain way for it to go right so that you can close the deal.”