Red Sox left-handed pitching prospect Noah Dean tried a couple of other sports growing up, including football as a freshman in high school.
“I played like one play and then I broke my wrist and never played again,” Dean said. “So that was the deciding factor of, ‘All right, let’s stick to baseball.’”
Dean was playing quarterback when a defensive lineman broke through.
“He tackled me and my arm got stuck in his shoulder pads,” Dean said. “And the kid jumped up and it just took it from there.”
Sticking to baseball has turned out quite well. Dean, who turned 23 in March, just enjoyed a dominant June for Low-A Salem. He posted a 1.37 ERA (19 ⅔ innings, three runs), 0.81 WHIP, 29 strikeouts and eight walks in four starts. Opponents batted just .127 against him. He struck out 39.7% of the batters he faced.
Boston drafted Dean out of Old Dominion University in the fifth round in 2022. His Baseball America pre-draft scouting report described his stuff as “fearsome” and noted he was “one of the more exciting pure relievers in the 2022 draft class.”
But the Red Sox saw more than just a reliever in him ahead of the draft. They felt he had the pitch mix and ability to get through lineups multiple times. They also liked how he could get outs against against both left-handed and right-handed hitters.
“They told me right when I got drafted,” Dean said about the conversion from reliever to starter.
Dean’s dominant June came after struggling at times during the first two months. Opponents batted just .229 against him in April and .136 against him in May. But walks hurt him and he had a 7.36 ERA (14 ⅔ innings, 12 runs) through his first four starts. He has a 1.87 ERA (33 ⅔ innings, seven runs) in his past eight outings.
His ERA is down to 3.54 on the season. He has a 1.03 WHIP and has held opponents to a .153 batting average. The stats suggest he could be nearing a promotion soon.
“Obviously everybody wants to move up,” Dean said. “But right now, I’m just enjoying my time. I’m in with a big group of guys that are just awesome. Good chemistry. And then the coaching staff is also unbelievable. So it’s fun. I mean, I’m hoping for a move up. But it’s out of my control. So I’m just kind of going with the flow.”
Dean reached 100 mph with his fastball as a reliever in college. As a starter, his fastball sits around 94 mph and he has topped out at 96.5 mph.
Dean and the development staff worked on a slurve last year.
“Then they found out with my arm slot and how my body moves that a true slider would work better for me and luckily it has,” Dean said.
His slider has become his best secondary pitch. It’s also the pitch he throws most consistently for strikes. He’s able to induce a lot of swing-and-miss with it.
“I think it plays off my fastball well,” he said. “Obviously it has the horizontal movement but it does drop a little. So for a hitter, it can look like a fastball outside and drop in the zone. Or I can throw it a little bit more out and it can look like a ball and drop into the zone. That’s what I’ve been seeing that’s been working for me recently with righties. And then with lefties, it’s just throw it over the plate and let it just run away from the lefties.”
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He throws from a three-quarters arm slot which he described 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 get more directional toward home plate. But with me throwing across my body with a three-quarters arm slot, I think it allows my slider to play a lot more. And it allows me to get it in the zone a little bit more. And I believe that’s what’s been helping me.”
Dean’s fastball plays best up in the zone.
“For lefties, in and up,” he said. “For righties, just up in the zone. … I think just letting it be up in the zone and just letting it ride is just my forte.”
He also throws a curveball with 11-to-5 movement and a changeup.
“(The curveball) has a little bit of a side spin so it drops but it also comes in to a righty just a little bit,” he said. “And my changeup, it just runs and drops. So my changeup runs to the left and drops to the left.”
Strike throwing has been an issue, especially last year when he posted a 6.29 ERA in 21 outings (17 starts) for Salem. He walked 72 batters in 63 innings. He has had better control during his recent strong stretch, averaging 3.7 walks per nine innings (33 ⅔ innings, 14 walks).
“I’ve learned how to be more comfortable in the zone and kind of allow myself to reset after every pitch,” he said. “Last year, I would throw a ball and then I’d throw another ball and then I would kind of worry myself like, ‘All right. Now I need to throw this in the strike zone.’ And ultimately, it just hurt me even more.”
He said he feels more composed this year.
“I don’t allow myself to think about the last pitch,” Dean said. “If I throw a ball, I just go behind the mound and take a deep breath and then I go back in and try to execute the next pitch. And it has been working. And that also accounts for being a little bit more comfortable in the zone.”
He understands his stuff will play if he throws it in the zone. He has always been a strikeout pitcher. He punched out 44.7% of the batters he faced in college. He has struck out 30.8% of the batters he faced in pro ball, 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 should be no difference with how your mindset is with each pitch. Yes, every pitcher is like, ‘I’m going to throw it as hard as I can and blow it by them.’ But realistically, if you’re already at 0-2, 1-2, your stuff is already playing. Why change that? So what I have learned is not to try to take that extra step to make your stuff even more nasty. Just go out there and trust your pitches and let it play in the zone. And that’s what has helped me.”
He said control/command is more for him about mindset than repeating his delivery and mechanics.
“This year, it’s more of trying to be like a goldfish,” he said. “So having a three-second memory and then forgetting about the last pitch even if it was a strike or ball, whatever. Just being present in that next pitch is what has helped me the most.”
Dean grew up in south 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 ever favorite pitcher.”
“At the time, it was like Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins. It was like the ‘08 Phillies and they were just dominant and I just loved watching them,” he said. “My dad (David) was in the military so my mom (Lauren) would bring me to Phillies games. So it was fun to watch them.”
His father served in the Army.
“He did a good amount of tours, which was kind of a little bit of a bittersweet thing. I wasn’t able to see my dad but when I got to see him, it was great times.
“He’s the one who taught me how to be a man, how to be polite,” Dean added. “My work ethic comes from him. My drive comes from him.”
