SEATTLE — In the second half of 2024, Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller was looking like one of the best starting pitchers in the American League.

From the All-Star break through the end of the regular season, Miller posted a 1.89 ERA and struck out 73 hitters in 71.1 innings pitched across 12 starts.

Miller finished the 2024 season with a 2.94 ERA and fanned 171 hitters in 180.1 innings pitched across 31 starts.

It seemed like the former Texas A&M product was set to lay his stake as one of the best pitchers in the league in 2025, but it wasn't meant to be.

Miller was limited to 18 starts in 2025 due to two respective stints on the injured list for right elbow inflammation. He finished last season with 5.68 ERA and fanned 74 hitters in just 90.1 innings pitched.

Despite the way his regular season ended, the 27-year-old righty was arguably the Mariners' most effective starter in the postseason.

In three starts in last year's playoffs, which featured Seattle making the American League Championship Series for the first time since 2001, Miller fanned nine hitters in 14.1 innings pitched and finished with a 2.51 ERA.

Even with his performance in the playoffs, it felt like 2025 was a lost season compared to how Miller ended 2024.

In the offseason, it seemed like Miller was putting behind the struggles of '25 behind him. He worked in the offseason and posted videos of him throwing live bullpens in which he posted fastball velocities as high as 98 miles per hour.

Alas, Miller's injury concerns continued. He suffered a right oblique strain in spring training and began the regular season on the 15-day injured list. He wasn't activated until May 13 against the team's arch rivals, the Houston Astros. Since then, he's picked off where he left off in '24.

"We've seen it come out of his hand pretty explosively and that's always great to see," M's manager Dan Wilson said in a pregame interview Sunday. "Attribute to work that he's put in to get back, to get healthy. Just the mindset he's taken out there with him every single day. He's attacking, he's using his stuff. That's what all our guys do. ... And when you're feeling good physically, and the mindset is where it needs to be, we got a very special group."

Through four appearances (three starts) this season, Miller has posted a 1.71 ERA and has struck out 20 batters in 21 innings pitched.

Despite his solid numbers, Miller's been mired in a piggyback situation with fellow starting pitcher Luis Castillo.

Miller and Castillo have taken turns starting while the other of the two has pitched in long relief out of the bullpen. In Sunday's 3-2, extra-inning win against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Miller pitched five scoreless innings. The team will go back to a six-man rotation with Miller and Castillo both getting independent starts this week.

Despite Miller (and Castillo) expressing frustrations in the piggyback situation, subsequent conversations with manager Dan Wilson, pitching coach Pete Woodworth and president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto smoothed things over and both starters went into Sunday with clarity of what their respective roles were.

The piggyback situation notwithstanding, this season has felt like a natural progression of what '24 was leading to.

"I think last year kind of got off the rails a little bit with the injury stuff," Miller said in a postgame interview Sunday. "Yeah, it's definitely — this is more so what I envisioned '25 looking like. But we're in a new year. Picked up where we left off in the postseason coming into this year. I feel really good."

While Miller will look to continue his solid season in his own independent start on the road, the Mariners will look to extend their win streak to seven games in the first of a three-game set against the New York Mets at 6:40 p.m. PT on Monday at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

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