Prospect Miller soaking up Tigers camp among elite company

This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

LAKELAND, Fla. -- The long side of lockers in the Tigers’ Spring Training clubhouse has generally had a logical order to it by position since the building opened in 2017. The span between the manager’s office and the entrance to the food room has usually gone for starting pitchers and starting candidates. That can create an impressive stretch of names when the Tigers have assembled a strong starting rotation.

With the Tigers’ recent signings heading into camp, the name plates above that stretch of lockers read like a list of stars. From left to right: Framber Valdez, Justin Verlander, Tarik Skubal, Casey Mize, Jake Miller, Jack Flaherty.

Wait … Jake Miller?

He’s the Tigers’ No. 19 prospect, a left-handed starter and reliever who pitched at Double-A Erie last year in an injury-shortened season. And he was just as surprised to see his name among those lockers as you are.

“I thought I was getting pranked at first,” Miller said.

So surprised, in fact, that he called his dad when he found out.

“I was like, ‘Hey, they’re moving my locker,’” Miller said. “I told him who was around. He was pumped up, too.”

Turns out there’s a logical explanation for how he got that plum spot.

Miller did not have that locker when Spring Training officially began on Wednesday. He was essentially across from there, grouped among younger position players like Colt Keith and Wenceel Perez and younger relievers. But when the Tigers signed veteran outfielder/first baseman Austin Slater to a Minor League contract that included a non-roster invite to Major League camp, they needed to find Slater a locker. With a crowded camp, open lockers were hard to find, but one was between Mize and Flaherty.

The starters looked at the new lockermate Thursday morning and thought back to their younger days.

“I thought about that earlier,” Skubal said. “In my first big league camp, if I was put in that locker, I would be petrified.”

“I remember being in those situations,” Flaherty said. “You just try to enjoy it and have fun with it and take everything in that you can. It takes me back to being in St. Louis and being around Adam Wainwright and Michael Wacha.”

That said, just as Skubal has done his best to welcome Valdez and Verlander to the team, he wants to do what he can to make Miller feel welcome.

“I think it’s up to us to kind of make him feel comfortable,” Skubal continued. “Talk to him: ‘Hey, you need a water? You need a banana?’ Whatever it is, make him feel comfortable.

“I think it’s not just that guy in the clubhouse. We’ve got a lot of youth that are kind of spread around [the clubhouse]. And when you talk to prospects, it’s important to get those guys comfortable. And I want to make those guys confident, so that way when they contribute, whenever it is, they make an impact on our team in a positive way.”

Miller and Skubal actually have more things in common than one might expect, beyond both being left-handed. Both were second-day Draft picks out of mid-major college programs. Skubal famously was a ninth-round pick out of Seattle University in 2018. Miller was an eighth-rounder out of Valparaiso University in 2022.

Like Skubal, Miller wasn’t highly recruited out of high school. Valpo was the best chance for the New York native to pitch Division I ball. He didn’t pitch at all as a freshman, and when he got his chance the following season in 2021, he walked 11 batters against 10 strikeouts in just 10 2/3 innings. He worried he might get dropped from the team, but head coach Brian Schmack -- a relief pitcher for the Tigers in 2003 -- stuck with him and encouraged him to play summer ball.

That summer stint for Champion City, a Prospect League team in Springfield, Ohio, set up an impressive 2022 campaign at Valpo and put him on the Draft radar. Miller was one of the breakout prospects in the Tigers system in 2024 before back and hip issues last year limited him to just six outings between Erie and Single-A Lakeland. He underwent labral repair surgery on both hips last fall and has been rehabbing ever since.

Despite the injury, the Tigers still thought so much of Miller’s potential to add him to the 40-man roster and protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. That placement earned him a spot in Major League camp. He won’t be able to pitch, but he’ll be able to learn.

“I’m kind of playing with house money,” Miller said last month. “You get to be around all these guys and just observe. I think there’s so much value in observing what they do and how they go about their days. I’ll start throwing, obviously, but I think I’ll have plenty of time to just observe and be a sponge, just learn as much as I can, and hopefully take that into the season with me and see what can happen.”

So has he worked up the courage to start a conversation with his new neighbors?

“I’m getting there,” he said. “I’m working on that.”