The San Diego Padres prioritized their star reliever's health, only allowing him to be used in a save situation in the WBC final despite his dominance, a crucial decision impacting the championship game.
At last year’s trade deadline, the San Diego Padres made the boldest move of the season, trading away a top infield prospect, Leo De Vries, for a reliever, Mason Miller. The Padres’ intentions were clear: field a team that can make a push deep into the postseason.
The trade certainly helped San Diego in their odds at completing that goal, bringing in one of the game’s best to help finish off games. It got even better for the Padres when Miller started to actually get to work on the mound in Petco Park, as he struck out a ridiculous 45 batters in 23 ⅓ innings after the deal.
After posting a 3.76 ERA in his 38 appearances with the Athletics before the deadline, Miller was as close as you could get to perfect in baseball in San Diego. He recorded a 0.77 ERA and 0.729 WHIP post-trade. Unfortunately, the Padres failed to make a deep postseason run, bouncing out in the Wild Card round.
Despite having his name prematurely tossed around in trade rumors this offseason after playing just 22 games for the Padres, Miller will be returning to San Diego for the 2026 campaign. First, however, he had his shot on the global stage playing with Team USA in the World Baseball Classic.
Miller pitched in four games for the United States in the tournament, and he picked up right where he left off with the Padres last season. He threw four innings and allowed zero hits and just two walks while striking out 10 batters.
His time with Team USA hasn’t been without its troubles, however, as Miller’s availability was called into question on a few occasions. Like many big-time MLB players, Miller’s status in the WBC was shaky amid fears from the Padres about a potential injury to their star reliever.
Because of this, Miller’s availability was an unknown heading into the championship game between the United States and Venezuela on Monday night.
“[Team USA coaches are] managing that team right now, but they’re not the manager of that player overall in Major League Baseball,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said about the struggle of keeping his stars healthy in the WBC.
Ultimately, the United States fell to Venezuela, 3-2, in an electric game. One of the more interesting storylines in the game, especially from a Padres’ perspective, was that Miller never made an appearance in the biggest game of the tournament despite his success in previous games. As expected, it came down to a decision from Stammen and the Padres.
“Honoring the Padres, had we taken the lead, he was coming in,” Team USA manager Mark DeRoza said of Miller’s availability in the WBC final. “But I wasn't going to bring him in to a tie game.”
Miller was to be used only in a save situation. In the ninth inning, the game was tied at 2. It was a tie in the ninth inning, and the USA was the home team – that means there was no more save situation. Either it would be a walkoff win for the USA, or they'd fail to answer to a Venezuelan run. Still, Miller never appeared.
USA reliever Garrett Whitlock allowed the winning run in that inning, only furthering ideas of how the inning would have played out if Miller was able to come in despite it being a tie game. Considering how great Miller has been pitching, it just may have won the WBC for the United States.