Marlins Draft Pick Gage Miller Is A No-Nonsense Hitting Machine
Alabama coach Rob Vaughn called Gage Miller “a walking barrel.”
And with good reason.
Miller hit .458 as a high school senior in Pennsylvania, then .391 and .397 in two seasons for Bishop State JC in Mobile, Ala. He transferred to Alabama for 2024 and hit .381 with 18 home runs.
Notably, on his first pitch of his first scrimmage with the Crimson Tide last fall, the 6-foot, 200-pound righthanded hitter homered over the scoreboard in left field.
“It sounded like a shotgun,” Vaughn said. “He has a simple, compact swing, but he has thunder in it.”
That’s surely what the Marlins were thinking when they drafted Miller in the third round this year. Miami drafted him as a second baseman, but he also plays third base, his primary position the past three seasons.
But things haven’t always been easy for Miller, who is from the small town of Palmyra, Pa. After high school, he had no Division I offers and ended up at Bishop State, a historically Black community college.
“One time,” Bishop State coach James Hattenstein said, “I told Gage, ‘Don’t be surprised if I yell at you just to show your teammates that I’m fair to everyone.’
“But the truth is that I couldn’t find any reason to yell at him. He plays hard. He’s usually covered in dirt from head to toe.”
When Vaughn was hired by Alabama in June 2023, he quickly started calling all the players he had inherited from the previous staff. When he got to Miller, he kept asking him about his arm, mistakenly thinking he was a righthanded pitcher.
Vaughn quickly corrected his mistake, begged Miller to stay, and the rest is happy Alabama history.
In the Southeastern Conference this year, Miller ranked third in batting average, fourth in on-base percentage (.474) and ninth in slugging (.702).
Miller, who hit leadoff for Alabama, has zero “look at me” in his game, according to Vaughn.
“He doesn’t love attention,” Vaughn said. “He’s a coach’s dream—no nonsense. He’ll hit a homer, drop his bat and run the bases.”
