San Diego Padres general manager AJ Preller said on Tuesday that the organization has yet to decide on right-handed pitcher Mason Miller’s future role at the club in 2026 and beyond.

In an interview with 97.3 The Fan, Peller said there will be private discussions in the coming weeks with Miller on the possibility of the 27-year-old moving to the starting rotation.

"I think the good news is, he's one of the great talents in the game. He can do a lot of things on the mound. I think we've seen obviously the dominance with the fastball, slider mix, the change-up coming into play,” Preller said in the interview. "We've had some success here, making guys starters... We'll see how the offseason plays out, roster-wise, and then we'll have some clearer direction for him over what that looks like."

The Padres acquired Miller at the 2025 trade deadline from the Athletics, and he made his impact immediately. In 23 ⅓ innings pitched for San Diego, Miller recorded 45 strikeouts and posted a ridiculous 0.77 ERA.

He carried his dominance into the playoffs as the Padres faced the Chicago Cubs in the Wild Card round. In 2 ⅔ innings, the flamethrower struck out eight batters and allowed zero hits or walks. When Miller was on the mound, there wasn’t anybody in baseball who could do anything about it.

Miller has already showcased how he impacts a game in relief, but would it translate if he were moved to the starting rotation? San Diego may need to move Miller to the rotation if they fail to fill in the holes in the offseason, as both Dylan Cease and Michael King enter free agency, potentially leaving an already questionable rotation.

It wouldn’t be the first time Miller has taken the mound to start the game. In his rookie season with the Athletics in 2023, Miller made four starts of at least four innings at the start of the season. In those starts, he threw 21 ⅓ innings and allowed eight runs while striking out 22 batters.

It’s a short sample size for the Padres front office to make major decisions based on, but Miller proved to be a solid rotational arm in that span. If he can be as impactful as he was out of the bullpen for the Padres in 2025 remains to be seen, but if Preller can’t fill the rotation in free agency, he may have no choice but to try his luck with Miller as a starter.