FORT MYERS, Fla. — Whether or not he’s a major-league-caliber shortstop is a question Noah Miller must answer over the early part of his playing career. Either way, the Twins think Miller, whom they selected with the 36th pick in this year’s amateur draft, should have enough of a bat to profile at second or third base.

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Yet as they went through their pre-draft investigative process earlier this summer, Miller’s answer to a question posed by the team’s scouts about his ability to stick at shortstop caught their attention.

The Twins already had seen plenty of great instinctual play from Miller as they heavily scouted him over the past calendar year. But when the 18-year-old demonstrated high confidence in himself and his defensive skills at shortstop, Miller began to move up the team’s draft board. The Twins think Miller’s self-belief is partly related to spending the past few years soaking up the professional baseball life of his older brother, Cleveland rookie infielder Owen Miller. Whether it was a trip to visit Owen in the minors, mingling with his older brother’s teammates or understanding the daily grind of pro baseball, the younger Miller — who went 2-for-4 with a walk in a Rookie-level Florida Complex League game Tuesday — has already demonstrated he can quickly adapt.

“He’s not the fastest shortstop in America,” Twins amateur scouting director Sean Johnson said. “But his response was, ‘When you show up to watch me play, do I not make every play?’ The answer was, ‘You’re right, you do.’ He just has a belief in himself that he’s going to be a shortstop, which is the most important thing. …

“It’s always an advantage to have someone who has gone before you in the pro world. He’s going to have a head start on (everything).”

Noah Miller’s head start began in 2016 when Owen, now 24, began playing college baseball at Illinois State University. Undrafted out of high school, Owen played three seasons at Illinois State before the San Diego Padres selected him in the third round of the 2018 draft.

With his brother still playing near their home in Wisconsin, Noah got a sense of what it took to play baseball at the next level. When Owen’s career progressed to the pros, an older Noah took even more notice. In 2019, at 16, Noah made a trip to visit Owen during a homestand for San Diego’s Double-A Amarillo affiliate. During that trip, Noah spent several days with his older brother at home and at the park, taking batting practice with the team and going to dinner with Owen and his teammates.

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“I kind of got a little bit of what that life was,” Noah said. “It still gave me a sense of how pro ball is, what he does. … It was kind of an introduction.”

The primer offered by his brother has been extremely valuable. Unlike many of his peers, Noah knew how important it was to develop a daily routine to prepare for his own career. He understood the value of additional time spent in the weight room, taking groundballs and hitting in the cage. He also had a sense for what the life entailed and how to carry himself around his teammates.

The information paid immediate dividends during Noah’s junior and senior seasons at Ozaukee High School in Fredonia, Wis. After participating in several showcases after his junior season, Miller hit .636 with five home runs in 58 plate appearances as a senior, according to MaxPreps.

He also made play after play in the field. One such play in late June impressed Johnson, as Miller cut off a throw from left field and fired the ball to first base to nab a batter who rounded the bag too hard after a single. Johnson described the 6-foot, 180-pound Miller as the “best pure baseball player” among his high school peers in the draft.

“You could tell he saw the play in his mind before it happened, and it worked,” Johnson said. “He’s just been preparing and working and training to be a good baseball player most of his young life, and it’s evident when you watch him play, the hustle, the instincts.”

Though Noah committed to play baseball at the University of Alabama, it became clear to his older brother that Noah was ready for pro baseball if teams called. The two spent the better part of quarantine with each other. Every day, they’d head to the park to hit and take grounders, work out in their basement and play Wiffle ball with their cousins. After an entire spring together, Owen sensed his little brother could handle the opportunity.

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“For so long I feel like I’ve been trying to give him advice and things that I learned along the way when I was in college or when I was in pro ball, just little tips,” Owen said earlier this month during Cleveland’s trip to Target Field. “It’s just ultimately helped him that he was my younger brother and always watching my games in college and the minors. He’s hung out with a lot of my friends. He used to play video games with a bunch of my buddies on the Padres. I just think all of that helped him, and I thought it would be a smoother transition for him to go from high school to pro ball and be around older players.

“It was really cool to see him just get better each year throughout high school.”

Perhaps an even cooler occurrence happened in May. In what began a great two months for the Miller family, Owen, who’d been acquired by Cleveland at the 2020 trade deadline in a mega-deal that sent Mike Clevinger to San Diego, was promoted and made his major-league debut. It just so happened the debut would occur the same day Noah was set to graduate from high school. But the instant Noah learned about his brother’s promotion, he insisted the entire family skip graduation and head to Cleveland to see Owen make his debut against the visiting Twins.

Six hours later, the family piled in the car at 2:30 a.m. to make the eight-hour trek from Fredonia to Cleveland. During the May 23 contest, Cleveland flashed a message on the stadium video board welcoming Noah and noting he was about to continue his own playing career.

“The night before when I called my parents, my mom was kind of freaking out because (Noah) had graduation that day,” Owen said. “When they asked him, right away he was like, ‘Oh, absolutely. A lot of people graduate high school, but you don’t get to see a lot of people make their MLB debut.’”

Seven weeks later, Noah got a similarly life-changing call. Though a first-round selection wasn’t in the cards, he’d heard from his representatives there was chance a team would select him in the compensatory-pick portion of the draft. The Twins had eight scouts see him play. They or Seattle were the most likely teams to draft him. Right as Tampa Bay used the 34th pick to draft Cooper Kinney, Noah’s phone rang with the news the Twins would select him at No. 36. Back at Triple A, Owen was streaming the draft when a FaceTime call from his mom came in.

“They were a little bit ahead from where I was watching,” Owen said. “She said, ‘It could happen right here.’ We listened with them. It was pretty cool. I probably stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning that night just talking with family members and friends and trying to live the experience.

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“It’s been a pretty good summer.”

It’s been a busy summer for Noah. He signed his pro contract in Minneapolis on July 27 and joined his new teammates in Fort Myers the next day. Heeding Owen’s advice, Noah has tried to meet all of his new teammates, coaches and training staff members over the past month and get to know them, understanding these will be his teammates for the next few years.

The first three weeks Noah spent in Florida were dedicated to working out, taking grounders and hitting in the cage. He made his pro debut playing for the Twins’ FCL team on Aug. 16, the same day Owen and Cleveland began a series at Target Field. Noah had a line-drive single in his first game and finished 1-for-3. He hit his first pro homer last Friday and is batting .268/.354/.415 with seven RBIs in 47 plate appearances.

He’s also played shortstop in all 11 games and has committed just one error. Though the Twins don’t know if Noah will remain a shortstop, they’re confident enough that his power profiles to hold down an infield job no matter where his glove lands him. But based on the answer he gave them about his own assessment of his defensive abilities, the Twins aren’t about to doubt Noah’s ability to stick at shortstop.

“It’s a confidence thing saying something like that because I know that I can make all the plays that I need to make,” Noah said. “I think I’ve worked hard to become the shortstop I am today, just taking constant reps if it’s downstairs, at the park, or indoors at the hitters’ facility. I also think I have a high baseball IQ that allows me to understand the position at a high level and should allow me to stay there in the future.”

(Photo of Noah Miller: Courtesy of Brace Hemmelgarn / Twins)