In one of the biggest surprises of the early season, the Oakland Athletics decide to already make an aggressive promotion, electing to promote Mason Miller to the major league roster.
Miller, the A’s top pitching prospect and third-ranked prospect overall, began the season–yes, this season with Double-A Midland. He was promoted to Triple-A, where he logged a single start before getting the call to the major league roster.
That’s a bit of an undersell on what Miller has been able to do: he had a near-perfect outing last Friday with Las Vegas where he threw five hitless innings, struck out eleven, and only allowed a single runner to reach on a strike three that got away from the catcher. And if that’s not impressive enough, he logged pitches over triple digits 23 times.
The hype is real. The fastball is electric. There’s just one problem: he’s logged less than thirty innings pitched in professional baseball.
There is absolutely no doubt that Mason Miller is one of the most intriguing prospects in the A’s farm system, but his meteoric rise through the system is relatively unprecedented, and should be met with some concern in his overall development. No, for those of you worried about service time, the A’s will not lose a year on Mason Miller’s service time because of when he’s getting the call up.
But the “what if” that comes along with Mason Miller is tied directly to his ability to get on the mound at all. Miller sustained a scapula strain in his right shoulder that had him miss all but six outings in 2022, just a year after being drafted. This season, he’s been healthy, but he’s logged just eight and two-thirds innings through two outings.
His exposure in professional leagues is obviously limited, and while he has an undoubtedly elite fastball, the question has been whether or not he can create at least one more effective secondary pitch. He shows off a mid-80’s changeup to go along with his triple-digit fastball, and even showed off a disgusting cutter with unreal movement earlier this year.
Still, his repertoire is under construction, and if Miller is going to find success at the major league level, he’s going to have to be forced to learn how to utilize those pitches on the fly, regardless of how good his fastball is.
It’s a bet that the Oakland A’s are willing to make, evidently.
Despite three different pitchers in the A’s organization being selected as Pitchers of the Week this past week, the major league staff has been anything but notable. Their rotation has put together a 9.39 ERA, with several underperforming starters to go along with Paul Blackburn and Drew Rucinski working back from slowly-unfolding rehab assignments.
The A's have turned to literally every corner of their professional roster to see if anyone can consistently get outs. In fact, they have used every single pitcher available on their current 40-man roster to try to log some innings for the club. Every single one of them.
The struggles are hard to deny, but it's exacerbated by the fact that the A's are handcuffed with their pitching options because of their quid pro quo deal with Shintaro Fujinami to have him, at least initially, pitch exclusively on Saturdays to stretch him out. They need starters who can go deeper into games, or even just four or five innings now. Heck, they'll even take a reliever who can consistently eat a couple of outs.
Could Mason Miller be able to hold his own with this batch of major league pitchers? We certainly hope.
But it’ll be at the risk of some developmental time for Miller along with a shake up to the 40-man roster, which will need to see one player shaved to make room for Miller’s call-up.
Miller is not a stranger to abrupt challenges, however. In 2018, he was diagnosed with Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes and weighed just 150 pounds. In a matter of years, thanks to a successful diet and strength program, Miller bulked up to an impressive 220 pounds to go along with his 6'5" frame.
The Oakland A's would select Miller out of Gardener-Webb University in the third round of the 2021 MLB Draft after Miller posted a 3.30 ERA and struck out 121 batters in 92 and 2/3 innings.
Just two short years after being drafted, Miller will have a chance to make his major league debut in the form of his newest challenge: being forced into the deep end, where the A's hope to see him swim while everyone else is sinking.
This is a breaking story. Check back for updates as more information comes in.
Comments