Delmon Young seven years ago and Jorge Soler today have a lot in common. Like Young, Soler is a 20 year old top outfield prospect expected to emerge as a cornerstone player for the franchise that signed him. And with this bat incident, their names will be irrevocably linked. Young’s story was different as he actually threw a bat at an umpire. It was not intentional- he meant to throw the bat not at the umpire, but towards the plate to argue a controversial call- but nonetheless it he made a stupid decision to throw the bat in the first place and no one was there to stop it. The critical difference between Young then and Soler now is that Soler has a support system around him, both physically and metaphorically, while Young was much more alone. Young was actually in the major leagues for the Devil Rays by the end of the year, with the team certainly disdaining wholeheartedly what he had done but regarding it as an isolated occurrence that would not happen again and being willing to move on. For Soler, the appearance of his teammates prevented his precipitate rage from turning into something much worse, and then there was Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein, who emphasized after what happened that it’s the duty of the Cubs organization to help Soler keeps his emotions in check.

“We condemn the act of what took place, but we support the player,” Epstein said. “We believe in Jorge as a person as well as a player. It’s our responsibility to work with him to make sure he has a better way to channel his emotions on the field and to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again. So that’s our responsibility. It’s his responsibility to fully embrace that.”

The Cubs are going to do everything they can to work with Soler to make sure whatever emotional issues he has will be forgotten as he stays calmer and stands out on the baseball diamond for his immense talent and not anything else. Epstein described Soler as “tremendously remorseful” about what happened and unable to fall asleep that night as it set in just how horrible a thing he had almost done. Young himself was “sincerely regretful” about the bat-throwing incident and apologized profusely for his actions. But the difference now is that the Cubs are willing to go above and beyond to work with Soler and give him whatever help he needs to mature as a person. The Rays did nothing wrong, but with so much on the line for Young’s career and for their franchise, they could have done more.

The priority of MLB teams is to find players to help them win games. But baseball is only one peace of the puzzle. Just as much as injuries or mechanical flaws can ruin players’ career, so can emotional issues, and teams have to be willing to confront those problems equally fervently. Every team in baseball has to take note of how Theo Epstein the Cubs conducted themselves in this situation. They made clear first and foremost that Soler’s actions can’t happen but then took responsibility for what happened and stressed that Soler’s continued emotional development has to be as much of a priority for them as his development on the baseball diamond. The Rays for their part have made serious progress in a similar vein themselves, becoming a team that’s more accepting of enigmatic personalities than anyone, signing players like Yunel Escobar and willing to do whatever possible to work with them to be at their best on and off the field. Everyone realizes now that baseball is no longer a game where you can ignore what a player does off the field if he plays well enough when he’s on it, and they have to be able to adjust to that reality.

The Cubs have a long way to go reforming their franchise as they search for their first championship since 1908. However, with a support system in place to help their prospects develop not just as players but as people, they could not be doing anything better for the future of their ballclub. No matter what happens at the major league level for the Cubs the next couple of seasons, there is plenty of reason for optimism about what they can do in the long-term after this Soler situation demonstrated the atmosphere of support for their players that Theo Epstein and the front office has created throughout their franchise. It’s amazing how a team that has found so little success for the past century is quickly becoming a model for the rest of baseball for how to run their organizations.

“See that fella over there? He’s 20 years old. In 10 years, he he’s got a chance to be a star. Now that fella over there, he’s 20 years old too. In 10 years, he has a chance to be 30.” – Casey Stengel

Delmon Young is only 27 years old. How is that possible? It feels like he’s been around forever! When the Rays traded him, they had never won more than 70 games in a season, and since then, they have won 90 or more games four times including three playoff berths. The two key players the Rays got from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for Young, Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett, had great runs with the Rays but have already moved on to other teams. It seems like Young has already been an enigmatic slugger for the Twins and Detroit Tigers as long as we can remember. We watched him reach the pinnacle as one of baseball’s top prospects, deliver a promising rookie year, and have his moments at other times, especially in the Postseason for the Tigers, before experiencing a steady decline. But despite all of that, he’s only 27 years old. It’s unbelievable, but it’s true. How did it happen? Simple- Young arrived in the major leagues when he was just 20 years of age.

When Young arrived in the majors in September of 2006, he seemed to be a perfect embodiment, of the latter part of the quote above, a 20 year old with improvement still to be done but clear potential for stardom. Instead, he has turned into the latter player Stengel describes, young but with little promise. “…he has a chance to be 30″- if he doesn’t get in his own way and watch his career fall apart, which is exactly what Young has done. Young came up to the major leagues, and he was, for lack of a better term, young. He came up and immediately became a solid player, which is something few players have done. You look at his comparable players at Baseball-Reference, and at comparable players numbers 6, 8, and 10, you find three players named Carl Yastrzemski, Roberto Clemente, and Dave Winfield. But instead of being a rising star entering his prime, Young never matured on or off the field. He has remained forever young- but not in the sense anyone would have thought back in 2006. His raw power remains tremendous- but he struggles to bring it out on a consistent basis. His plate discipline remains a disaster. His pure hitting toll is still amazing- it takes a lot of talent to hit .284 in almost 3600 big league plate appearances, especially without a discerning eye at the plate. And mentally, he’s the same player, only having moved on from throwing bats at umpires to saying anti-Semitic slurs to Jews. A few signs of aging are clear- his body has filled out from 205 pounds to 240 and his once above-average speed has completed departed from him. But deep down, Delmon Young is that same enigmatic personality that he has been from his first day in the major leagues, and it seems like he always will be.

As a former Devil Rays player, Delmon Young could serve as a designated hitter for the Rays in 2013. Credit: William Perlman/THE STAR-LEDGER via US PRESSWIRE

As the 2012 American League Championship Series MVP, free agent Delmon Young could bring the offensive skills the Rays are looking to acquire this offseason. Young hit .353 with six RBIs and two home runs in the ALCS. Young played 118 games as the Detroit Tigers’ designated hitter in 2012 but also 31 games at left field, which are two positions the Rays are looking to fill. Desmond Jennings currently plays left field, but he could move to center field if the Rays want to use Young in left field. While the Rays may not be able to afford Young, who had a one-year contract with the Detroit Tigers in 2012 worth $6.75 million, it could be nice to see Young back on the Rays’ roster. Young hit .267 with 74 RBIs and 18 home runs in 2012.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays drafted Delmon Young in the first draft of the 2003 Amateur Draft and made his Major League debut in 2006 with the Devil Rays against the Chicago White Sox. His first Major League hit was a two-run home run off of Chicago’s Freddy Garcia. The Rays could use another bat with that kind of power in their lineup.

In the 2007 offseason, Young was one of the players the Rays traded to the Minnesota Twins for pitcher Matt Garza, shortstop Jason Bartlett, and minor league player Eduardo Morlan.

Even if the Rays could afford Young, his history of bad behavior on and off the field would be a concern. Three days ago, Young pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges for aggravated assault and sentenced to ten days of community service. In April of 2012, Young was arrested after using an anti-Semitic slur in an altercation with four men outside of the Hilton Hotel in Manhattan, where the Tigers were staying while playing the New York Yankees. Major League Baseball suspended young for a week without pay after his arrest. A rabbi Young met with in Detroit told The Detroit News that Young appeared “remorseful of the way things played out in regard to the incident, in terms of the impact on the team, the fans, the Jewish community, and the community at-large.”

However, this is not the first time Young’s behavior has been an issue. While playing for the Rays’ Triple-A team, the Durham Bulls, Young threw a bat at an umpire after being ejected for arguing about the umpire’s call. Young was suspended for fifty games without pay and chose not to appeal the suspension. The previous year Young had another altercation with an umpire, who he bumped, while playing for the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits and was suspended for three games.

While the Rays continue to look for players who can augment their offense, Young has the potential to fulfill the role as designated hitter. It would be great to see Young’s hitting skills support the Rays’ pitching staff again, instead of hitting against them.