New All-Star Miller doing his best to navigate through Padres' funk

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

LOS ANGELES -- With the Padres trailing by a run in the top of the ninth inning on Friday night, Mason Miller began to get loose. He started playing catch on the Dodger Stadium bullpen mound.

Quickly, the Padres had two outs. Miller kept ramping up. You never know. With a homer and a groundout, Miller would’ve been into the game within a matter of two pitches. Except -- as you already know -- Fernando Tatis Jr. struck out, sealing the Padres’ seventh straight loss, amid their worst losing streak since 2013.

Miller kept throwing anyway -- at an intensity unlike any normal pregame throwing session. He hasn’t been pitching much lately. He needed the work.

“There’s going to be tight games, there’s going to be stretches where we’re playing better baseball,” Miller said the next day. “The season is not an even, continuous line. It’s very up and down. … I’m doing my best [to stay sharp].”

A day later, Miller was named to the National League All-Star team. Pertinently, he was San Diego’s only All-Star. If it remains that way -- and do these Padres really have any replacement All-Star candidates? -- it would be the first time they’ve sent just one player to the Midsummer Classic since 2019 (Kirby Yates).

That speaks to the challenge with Miller. The Padres have been struggling for a month and a half. There was a time earlier this season where there were major concerns about Miller’s over-usage. Not anymore.

In the past three weeks, Miller has appeared in only six games -- including each of the last two. One of those games was Saturday night -- in the eighth inning, with the Padres trailing 2-0. Understandably, Miller looked rusty, plunking the first hitter, then surrendering Freddie Freeman’s RBI single.

“You want to take care of him,” said Padres manager Craig Stammen. “You don’t want to put him in situations like last night. But he’s also got to pitch. He’s a weapon. We’ve got to use that weapon.”

Miller was rested. San Diego was only down two. There’s a world in which the team scored a few runs in the ninth, and Miller came out as the winning pitcher. It made all the sense in the world to use him. Except, the Padres also needed him Sunday. And now there are questions about his availability early in this week’s critical series against Arizona.

That is a tricky world for an All-Star closer to live in. Miller is doing his best to navigate it.

“We talked about it in April when I was pitching all the time, and you guys were asking about if this was sustainable for the season, how much I’m throwing,” Miller said. “It’s the ebbs and flows of a back-end guy. There’s times during a season -- good teams or bad teams -- where your best closer, or your best relievers, just aren’t throwing as much. It’s just the challenge of staying ready.”

Of course, the Padres’ recent slide and Miller’s involvement in it -- or lack thereof -- raise a very uncomfortable question for the organization.

Miller is the Padres’ best player. Yet, he’s barely played. That’s not how this should work.

After their losing streak, the Padres suddenly find themselves below .500. They’re barely on the fringe of the Wild Card picture, and their playoff odds have plummeted in the past few weeks.

No one denies the value of an elite closer on a playoff team. But on this team? Right now, the Padres aren’t playing like a playoff team. A year ago, they gave up Leo De Vries, one of the best prospects in baseball to acquire Miller.

Since then, Miller has taken his game to a different level. So even if he’s got one fewer year of team control, his value is probably about as high as it’s ever been. If the Padres’ struggles continue until the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline, they’d at least have to consider trading Miller, given what they might get in return.

That’s a question for another day. They’re hoping it doesn’t get that far. Over the weekend, Stammen was asked about his players navigating the Deadline and said: ‘We’re so far away from it, I don’t think they’re thinking about it yet.”

Except … it’s not that far away. Four weeks from today, to be precise. If the Padres are going to contend, they need reinforcements. But if they’re going to trade for reinforcements, they need to establish themselves as contenders first.

If they don’t, it might be wiser to sell. And if they sell, they’ve got a very big prize in Miller. Trading him would be a last resort -- a sign things have gone terribly wrong. But to avoid reaching that last resort, the Padres need Miller on the mound more frequently over the next four weeks. And to do that, they need to start giving him leads to protect.