Q&A with pitching prospect Dax Fulton

This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola’s Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Marlins No. 4 prospect Dax Fulton got his first taste of big league camp this spring. Although his two outings didn't go as he had hoped, the 21-year-old left-hander soaked in his surroundings to prepare for his 2023 season.

Fulton, whom the Marlins selected in the second round of the 2020 MLB Draft out of Mustang High School in Oklahoma City, received a record bonus for a prep pitcher who missed his entire senior season (Tommy John surgery rehab). In his second professional season in '22, Fulton went from High-A Beloit to Double-A Pensacola, where he began his '23 season as the Opening Day starter.

In this latest prospect Q&A, get to know Fulton on and off the field.

MLB.com: If you weren't playing baseball, what would you be doing?
Fulton: My answer changed over the last couple of years. I did want to be a lawyer. If I was going to go to school, I was going to major in pre-law. Lately, I've been getting into real estate. I've really started to enjoy that part. Honestly, it would probably be real estate right now. My mom's a real estate agent. It's just one of the things that's really interesting how it works. I feel like right now it's a really good way to make money, so that's kind of what I do outside of the field.

MLB.com: Have you been able to help her sell anything?
Fulton: Mainly I'm just learning. I wanted something to kind of occupy my time in the offseason. I was getting bored. I was working out and then going home, and I was kind of getting tired of that because it's been my third offseason now. It's like trying to find something to occupy my time, make a little bit of money in the offseason, so hopefully this next year will go better.

MLB.com: What was it like being a teenager away from home as a professional ballplayer?
Fulton: My outlook on the world has changed quite a bit. I was very sheltered. At home, everybody's kind of sheltered. You have your own things and your parents kind of tell you the rights and wrongs of the world. And then when you go out on your own, you kind of get to experience it all for yourself. Living in Florida is different, but at the same time, I wouldn't change it. I've enjoyed every part of my pro career so far, and everything's been great.

MLB.com: How's your Spanish coming along?
Fulton: It could be better, as always. I'm starting to understand them a little bit better, but at the same time, I feel like the hardest part is just speaking it.

MLB.com: What do you miss most about home during the season?
Fulton: Definitely the home-cooked meals, because we eat at odd parts of the day. My mom's a great cook. She cooks quite a bit for us whenever I am home. She makes really good salmon. We have an outside grill. She'll grill it on there.

MLB.com: What was it like to be part of that Double-A championship club? You started the semifinal!
Fulton: It was an awesome experience. Most of those guys I had played all year with because a lot of those guys were from [High-A] Beloit, and we all kind of got called up. We're a really close bunch, and we said it the whole year that those guys that were in Beloit were super close together, and we knew that if we got the right team and played as good as we could, we would have a good chance, and everything just kind of fell into place. It was awesome. It was one of the best times I've had, probably the best moment I've had in my pro career so far.

MLB.com: What was your goal this spring?
Fulton: My dad always told me that God gave you two ears and one mouth because you're supposed to listen twice as much as you're supposed to talk. It's kind of one of the things that I'm trying to take into effect right now, is just kind of listen to what everybody has to say, just kind of be quiet and let all their knowledge kind of try to take as much in.