Meet the Red Sox prospect with a ‘fearsome’ physique who struck out 40% of batters in June

Red Sox left-handed pitcher Noah Dean tried a few other sports growing up, including football as a freshman in high school.

“I played one time, then I broke my wrist and never played again,” Dean said. “That’s what tipped the scales in baseball’s favor.”

Dean was playing quarterback when a defensive lineman broke through.

“He tackled me to the ground and my arm got caught in his shoulder pads,” Dean said. “And the kid got up and it went from there.”

Baseball has worked out pretty well. Dean, who turned 23 in March, is coming off a dominant June for Salem in Low-A. He posted a 1.37 ERA (19 ⅔ innings, three runs), a 0.81 WHIP, 29 strikeouts and eight walks in four starts. Opponents hit just .127 against him. He struck out 39.7 percent of the batters he faced.

Boston drafted Dean out of Old Dominion University in the fifth round in 2022. His pre-draft scouting report from Baseball America described his talent as “formidable” and noted that he was “one of the most exciting pure relievers in the 2022 draft class.”

But the Red Sox saw more than just a reliever in him before the draft. They felt he had the mix of pitches and the ability to work his way through lineups multiple times. They also liked how he could get outs against both left-handed and right-handed hitters.

“They told me as soon as I got drafted,” Dean said of his conversion from reliever to starter.

Dean dominated June after struggling through the first two months. Opponents hit just .229 against him in April and .136 against him in May. But walks hurt him and he posted a 7.36 ERA (14 ⅔ innings, 12 runs) in his first four starts. He has a 1.87 ERA (33 ⅔ innings, seven runs) in his last eight outings.

His ERA has dropped to 3.54 this season. He has a 1.03 WHIP and has held opponents to a .153 batting average. The stats suggest he could soon be on the verge of a promotion.

“Obviously, everybody wants to move up,” Dean said. “But right now, I’m just enjoying my time. I’m with a great group of guys that are just awesome. There’s great chemistry between them. And then the coaching staff is amazing, too. So it’s fun. I mean, I hope to move up. But it’s out of my control. So I’m just going with it.”

Dean hit 100 mph with his fastball as a reliever in college. As a starter, his fastball hovers around 94 mph and he has hit a high of 96.5 mph.

Dean and the development team have been working on a slurve for the past year.

“Then they figured out, because of where my arm is and how my body moves, that a real slider would work better for me and luckily it did,” Dean said.

His slider has become his best secondary pitch. It’s also the pitch he uses most consistently to get strikes. He’s capable of provoking a lot of swing-and-misses with it.

“I think it works well with my fastball,” he said. “Obviously, it has some horizontal movement, but it does come down a little bit. So to a hitter, it can look like a fastball on the outside and come down in the zone. Or I can throw it a little bit further and it can look like a ball and come down in the zone. That’s what I’ve seen that’s worked for me recently with righties. And then with lefties, just throw it over the plate and let it get away from lefties.”

He throws from a three-quarter arm position, which he describes as “a blessing and a curse.”

“I tend to throw across my body and that’s something I want to work on,” he said. “I want to be more directional toward the plate. But because I throw across my body with a three-quarter arm, I think it allows my slider to play a lot more. And it allows me to put it in the zone a little bit more. And I think that’s what’s helped me.”

Dean’s fastball plays better in the zone.

“For lefties, in and up,” he said. “For righties, just up in the zone. … I think just letting the ball go in the zone and letting it move forward is my strong point.”

He also throws a curveball with 11-5 swing and a changeup.

“(The curveball) has a little bit of sidespin, so it falls, but it also comes a little bit to the right-hander,” he said. “And my changeup ball, it runs and falls. So my changeup ball runs to the left and falls to the left.”

Strikeouts have been an issue, especially last year, when he posted a 6.29 ERA in 21 outings (17 starts) for Salem. He walked 72 in 63 innings. He has had better control during his recent hot streak, averaging 3.7 walks per nine innings (33 ⅔ innings, 14 walks).

“I’ve learned to be more comfortable in the zone and allow myself to reset after every pitch,” he said. “Last year, I’d throw one ball, then another, and then I’d think, ‘Okay, now I have to throw this ball in the strike zone.’ And it ended up hurting me even more.”

He said he felt more peaceful this year.

“I don’t let myself think about the last pitch,” Dean said. “If I throw a ball, I just go behind the mound and take a deep breath, then come back and try to execute the next pitch. And it works. And it also helps me feel a little more comfortable in the zone.”

He knows his pitches will be effective if he throws them in the zone. He has always been a strikeout pitcher. He has struck out 44.7% of the batters he has faced in college. He has struck out 30.8% of the batters he has faced in professional baseball, including 34.4% this season.

“Our assistant pitching coach told me that when I get to a 1-2, 0-2, 2-2 count, there shouldn’t be a difference in the mindset I take every pitch with. Yeah, every pitcher is like, ‘I’m going to throw as hard as I can and get past them.’ But the reality is, if you’re already 0-2, 1-2, your game is already on the line. Why change that? So I learned not to try to take that extra step to make your game even meaner. Just go out there, trust your pitches and let them play in the zone. And that’s what helped me.”

He said that for him, control/command is more about mindset than rehearsing your delivery and mechanics.

“This year I’m trying to be more like a goldfish,” he said. “So I have a three-second memory and then I forget the last throw, even if it was a strike or a ball, whatever. Just being there for the next throw is what’s helped me the most.”

Dean grew up in southern New Jersey, closer to where the Phillies play than the Yankees or Mets. So he grew up watching Philadelphia and was a big fan of Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee. He called Halladay his “first favorite pitcher.”

“Back then it was like Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins. It was like the 2008 Phillies, they were just dominating and I loved watching them,” he said. “My dad (David) was in the military, so my mom (Lauren) would take me to Phillies games. So it was fun to watch them.”

His father served in the army.

“He did a lot of touring, which was a little bittersweet. I didn’t get to see my dad, but when I did, it was a good time.

“He taught me how to be a man, how to be polite,” Dean added. “My work ethic comes from him. My motivation comes from him.”

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