CF · 2026
Justin Dean
- Age
- 30
- B/T
- R/R
- Height
- 5' 8"
- Weight
- 185 lb
- Number
- #1
- Born
- December 6, 1996 in Mauldin, SC, USA
- MLB debut
- August 8, 2025
- Drafted
- 2018, round 17
- College
- Lenoir-Rhyne
- dbWAR
- .2 2 season(s)
- PA
- 10
- AVG
- .375
- OBP
- .500
- SLG
- .625
- wRC+
- 220 100 = avg
Justin Dean is a center fielder for the Chicago Cubs. In 2026 he hit 0 home runs and knocked in 3 RBIs, notching 3 hits across 10 plate appearances in 10 games. His batting average was .375, 53.9% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .500 clip and slugged .625, for an OPS of 1.125, 56.4% higher than the league mark of .719. He averaged 85.7 mph off the bat, hit 50.0% of balls in play at 95 mph or better and made contact on 66.7% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 220 wRC+ puts his offence 120% above average. That comes to 0.2 dbWAR — +1.4 runs with the bat, +0.2 on the bases, +0.0 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.
League context
Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.
How the WAR is built
Runs above replacement, 2026. These four terms sum to +1.9 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR.
WAR by season
Platoon splits
How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.
| Split | PA | AB | H | HR | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | K% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LHP | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 100.0% |
| vs RHP | 9 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | .429 | .556 | .714 | .544 | 33.3% |
Spray chart
Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.
Loading 4 batted balls…
Contact quality
How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 4 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.
- Barrel rate
- 0.0% 0 barrels
- Exit velocity
- 85.7 mph average
- Max exit velo
- 101.9 mph, hardest hit
- Hard hit
- 50.0% 95 mph or better
- Sweet spot
- 50.0% 8–32° launch
- Launch angle
- -1.0° average
A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.
Hot and cold zones
Batting average by pitch location, 2026.
Situational hitting
How Justin Dean hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.
| Situation | PA | AB | H | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All situations | 10 | — | — | — | — | — | — | .375 | .500 | .625 | .490 |
| Bases empty · thin | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | .807 |
| Runner on first · thin | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Runners on · thin | 8 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | .286 | .375 | .571 | .411 |
| RISP · thin | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | .400 | .500 | .800 | .548 |
Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Rows under 25 plate appearances are marked thin — at that size a rate moves several dozen points on one hit. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.
Batting
Standard and advanced, by season.
| Trend | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | .375 | .500 | .625 | .250 | .750 | 20.0% | 40.0% | .490 | +1.4 | 220 | 0.2 | |
| 2025 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 0.0% | 50.0% | .000 | -0.5 | -117 | -0.0 |
Head to head
Put Justin Dean beside up to three others.
wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.