San Diego Padres reliever Mason Miller has a new role, but it didn’t take long for the Padres closer to deliver a message that one thing hasn’t changed. Miller once again cracked the 100-mph mark in his first two spring training appearances, striking out three hitters in two scoreless innings, according to a report from AJ Cassavell of MLB.com
Many pitchers ease into their first spring training appearance, but Miller didn’t seem at all surprised about his initial results.
“If you go about your offseason right, your first outing should feel great,” he said.
But this spring training won’t be about business as usual going going forward to prepare for the regular season. Miller will leave camp soon to join Team USA and compete in the WBC, and he moved his winter program ahead by two weeks to make sure he’s ready. Miller says he plans to treat the group-stage games as part of his spring buildup, but it’ll be no-holds barred when the knockout portion of the games starts.
The reliever also made sure he faced hitters before he reported to camp, which wasn’t exactly easy given that he spends his offseason and spent his winter in the Pittsburgh area. That meant moving indoors due to a foot of snow and 20-degree temperatures, but Miller barely saw this as an inconvenience.
Miller was a source of controversy during the offseason, but it wasn’t of his own making. The Padres have a thin rotation, so they asked if the reliever would be more valuable to them as a starter. Pitching coach Ruben Niebla addressed this question at camp, and his knowledge of Miller’s makeup and history was a vital part of his response.
“Having the take of the pitcher himself -- what he wants to do, where he feels comfortable -- if there was a strong desire for him to start, we probably would have shifted and allowed him to do that,” said pitching coach Ruben Niebla. “But we also understand who we have in Mason Miller as possibly, arguably, the best closer in baseball.”
Miller took a practical approach to this issue.
“I think, just right now, it makes the most sense to stay with that success, stay where I know that I’m going to make an impact on this team.”
The question there is how many opportunities Miller will have to close with this year’s team. The plan make sense on paper, but most of the projections have the Padres sliding to .500, maybe slightly below, which would diminish his value.
Spring training is a time for optimism, though, and for the moment that’s where the Padres are. Hopefully Miller comes out of the WBC healthy—even with his revamped winter prep, anything can happen in that tournament when the pressure gets ratcheted up and he has to cut loose to get vital outs.