What Could Have Been...Michael Young, An Oriole?

I was watching Hot Stove on MLB tonight. They opened the show discussing the soap opera going on with Michael Young in Arlington. Not only did the Rangers sign Adrian Beltre; but they traded for C/DH Mike Napoli. Michael Young has been nothing but a team player throughout his days in Texas. He shifted over from 2B to SS when Ian Kinsler got promoted to the big leagues. When Texas acquire SS Elvis Andrus, Young again shifted; this time from SS over to 3B. Once Beltre was signed, Young agreed without hesitation to move to DH. Once Napoli was added, Young had enough. He would not accept a diminished role as a part time player and has requested a trade. As the situation currently stands, Young has 22 teams on his no-trade list. Out of the 8 remaining, one is the Colorado Rockies, which was said to be one of the main suitors looking to trade for Young.

Everyone may be wondering; this is an Orioles blog, so why feature Michael Young news? Well here is the answer to that question. As I found out earlier tonight thanks to some digging, Michael Young was almost an Oriole. Back in the year 1994, Young was finishing his senior season at Bishop Amat Memorial High School in La Puente, Califonia. Our Baltimore Orioles had selected Young in the 25th round of that year's amateur draft. Young elected not to sign and went on to college at University of California, Santa Barbara. He was drafted three years later in the 5th round by the Toronto Blue Jays. He signed with the Jays and was later traded to the Texas Rangers along with pitcher Darwin Cubillan in exchange for Esteban Loaiza.

Since that trade, Michael Young has become the all-time Rangers hits leader and is 3rd on the all-time games played list in Ranger history. The question that will be asked now is, will he remain with Texas to set more Ranger records?