Miami Marlins: A Look at the Farm

While the Miami Marlins are coming off of a series win in St. Louis, there have been some standouts across all levels of the minor leagues. From New Orleans to Greensboro, these four young Fish have made quite the impression.

AAA New Orleans – OF, Austin Dean

Austin Dean started off the year swinging one of the hottest bats in the entire nation and in the Miami Marlins system. The former fourth-round draft pick started the year in Double-A hitting to the tune of .420/.466/.654 through 22 games.

So far through 33 contests at Triple-A Dean has kept his bat lively. He is currently hitting .308/.397/.467. While he is not keeping up the torrid pace that he was at Double-A, he is hitting at a very respectable clip that will warrant a call to the big leagues sometime this year.

While Dean is no longer one of MLB.com’s top-30 Marlins’ prospects, in 2016, he was ranked as the Marlins’ fifth-best prospect just behind Brian Anderson. At the time, his hit tool was the highest regarded part of his game. In the video above, Dean shows a very short, quick swing that he is able to get on plane quickly.

In 2018, Dean has improved upon an already solid hit tool. He has cut his strikeout rate down to 11% from his career average that was up near 20%. With these improvements to his game, Dean is making it tough on the Marlins to leave him in Triple-A. Depending on what happens down the stretch, expect Dean to be in Miami sometime this summer.