J.D. Osborne’s 2018 Season in Review: Miami Marlins Rising

J.D. Osborne will likely start the 2019 Miami Marlins minor league season with the high-A Jupiter Hammerheads in the Florida State League.

Throughout the 2018/2019 offseason, Marlin Maniac will devote one article each for every player who appeared in the Miami Marlins system for the 2018 season. Every. Single. Player. This is Part 185 of 286. For the first 100, click here.

John-Daniel Jurgen Worner Osborne is a 6’1″, 215 lb. right-handed batting and throwing catcher from Whitby, Ontario, where he attended All Saints Catholic SS. Nobody from Whitby has ever made the majors, although 6’6″ pitcher Ryan Kellogg is currently at high-A with the Chicago Cubs system.

Osborne was born on July 13th, 1995, and in the 2017 MLB Amateur Draft, he was chosen in the 22nd round by the Miami Marlins out of the University of Tampa. Taken 659th overall, Osborne hopes to join the three member “659 Club,” of players selected at the spot to graduate to the major leagues. The most prolific current member of the club is Kevin Pasley, who played in 55 games between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Seattle Mariners after getting chosen by the Dodgers in 1971.

Osborne, who you can follow on Twitter @josbornesauce, slashed .347/.395/.607 in three seasons of college ball, with 36 round-trippers and 198 RBI in 149 contests. After signing with the Miami Marlins, he reported to the GCL Marlins, in the rookie-level, Florida-based Gulf Coast League. In his first 26 games of professional level play, he slashed .226/.330/.274, with no homers and 10 RBI. His OBP was relatively high due to his impressive 12.0 percent walk rate.

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Osborne was promoted to the short-season-A Batavia Muckdogs to start the 2018 campaign, in the New York-Penn League. Through the first two months of his season with them, he hit 15-for-44 with six walks and only four strikeouts. In 10 of his 30 games, he collected multiple hits, and hit seven doubles, a triple, and three homers for 20 RBI. On July 19th, in a 13-5 win against the Williamsport CrossCutters, Osborne batted fifth and hit a single, a double, and a home run, collecting four RBI in total. He ended up with an impressive .340/.416/.509 slashline. Defensively, he threw out 17 percent of baserunners and fielded a .983 percentage in 19 games behind the plate.

On August 5th, Osborne was pushed up a level, to the single-A Greensboro Grasshoppers in the South Atlantic League. In 16 games, he went 12-for-49 with five extra base hits and four RBI. He was perfect in 69 chances behind the dish, and threw out two-of-nine runners trying to steal.

Osborne is currently slated to join the single-A Clinton LumberKings to commence the 2019 campaign. He already showed chops at that level, so it’s likely he joins the high-A Jupiter Hammerheads in the Florida State League before too long.

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