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In the second round of the 2014 MLB Draft, the Milwaukee Brewers selected outfielder Monte Harrison out of Lee’s Summit West High School in Missouri.
Harrison was originally set to go to Nebraska to pursue a career in both baseball and football, but the $700,000 draft bonus the Brewers offered him was too much to turn away.
The outfielder came over from the Brewers to Miami over the offseason in the deal that sent Christian Yelich to Milwaukee and sent Lewis Brinson, Isan Diaz Jordan Yamamoto and Monte Harrison to south beach.
According to MLB Pipeline, the 22-year old ranks as Miami’s No. 2 prospect as well as the No. 72 prospect in all of baseball.
Harrison is considered an all-around top prospect and doesn’t really have any areas of his game where he is considered “below-average”. His physical strength gives him the ability to hit for power to all fields as well as his impressive bat speed. We saw some of that on display during spring training:
The only knock that scouts have on the right-hander’s bat is that his swing is a bit long which causes his strikeout numbers to rise as well as him swinging and missing at breaking pitches in the dirt.
On the defensive side, he has the tools necessary to be an above-average defender in any of the three outfield postions. He has above-average speed as well as a cannon for an arm which gives him the ability to put fear in the hearts of base runners looking to run on him.
The Marlins believe that if he stays healthy he has the ability to become a staple in their future outfield right along side top prospect Lewis Brinson, who has already started to make his name known in the big leagues.
In 2017 split between two levels of Single-A with the Brewers, Harrison slashed .272/.350/.481 with 21 home runs, 67 RBIs, and 27 stolen bases. In those 122 games, he was the definition of an all-around talent who was putting his five tools on display.
MLB Pipeline estimates that Harrison should be up in Miami with the Marlins as soon as next season and with that being the case, fans should be excited for the talent who is about to make his way down to South Beach. In the meantime, he seems plenty excited to begin 2018 with the Double-A Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.