Brian Anderson has become the Miami Marlins best homegrown talent

In only a hand-full of years in the organization, Brian Anderson has quickly become the Miami Marlins best homegrown talent on the team’s 40-man roster.

In only a hand-full of years in the organization, Brian Anderson has quickly become the Miami Marlins best homegrown talent on the team’s 40-man roster.

Brian Anderson is a rarity. One of only a handful of players who remain on the Miami Marlins 40-man roster who is considered a homegrown talent.

When the Marlins front office, which was run by owner Jeffrey Loria and team president David Samson at the time, made Anderson a third-round draft pick out of Arkansas, they took a chance on a player who was going to be a second baseman. Instead, he rose through the Marlins minor league system to become a budding star who will be the team’s third baseman of the future.

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This could be the season that puts the 27-year-old on the Major League map. A virtual unknown in baseball circles, the Miami Marlins opponents know who he is and the rest of the team that may comprise a new divisional realignment will know about and his game as well in 2020.

“In the third round of the 2014 MLB Draft, the Marlins came up big by selecting Brian Anderson from the University of Arkansas with the 76th overall pick. Listed as a second baseman at the time, Anderson is now Miami’s third baseman for the foreseeable future,” Joe Frisaro of MLB.com writes.“In ‘19, he had career highs for home runs (20) and RBIs (66). He was tracking towards at least 25 home runs before having his season cut short in late August after fracturing a bone in his left hand. In the past two years, Anderson has split time at third base and in right field, but the club played him exclusively at third base before Spring Training came to a halt in March. The plan is to keep him there. Anderson had a Fangraphs WAR of 3.4 in ‘18 and 3.1 in ‘19, and he appears to be reaching his prime.”

The Marlins could also use him as a designated hitter if it comes to it. His versatility makes him valuable to manager Don Mattingly in his roster decision making.

Anderson, in a full season of work, could approach 25-30 home runs and 90-100 RBI. He has to improve his batting average, but the tools are there at the plate and in the field for him to be a catalyst and cornerstone player for the organization. The Miami Marlins front office should consider locking him up and building the team around him for the future.

He could quickly become the face of the franchise.

“There’s a special connection between fans and homegrown prospects,” Zachary Silver writes at the intro of the comments made by Frisaro and other MLB writers..“There’s a feeling that you grew up with that player, experiencing the highs and lows since his arrival with a distinctive err of satisfaction that it was your team who discovered him, either on the college circuit or perhaps some backfield around the country.”

For Anderson and the Marlins, it’s a relationship that continues to build and hopefully will lead to individual and team success in the near future.