Giants pitching prospect Spencer Miles couldn’t help but feel some nerves as he prepared to make his Arizona Fall League debut on Oct. 9.
The 25-year-old right-hander hadn’t pitched competitively since June 2024 due to Tommy John surgery, but his unease centered less on the health of his arm and more on the iffy weather.
Miles’ older brother, John Austin, had flown in from Missouri to watch him make his long-awaited return to the mound, but the rain was starting to pick up as the Scottsdale Scorpions’ game entered the late innings.
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“I’m like, ‘Holy smokes, he might not even get to see me pitch, and he flew out here to see me throw,’” Miles said in a phone interview. “So the nerves were kind of high from that perspective. A little less from a health standpoint because I know I’ve put in all the work, and I know I’m super capable. I just had to go out there and do what I can do given the circumstances.”
In the end, the weather cooperated enough for Miles to come out of the bullpen and pitch the bottom of the eighth for Scottsdale. He certainly didn’t disappoint, topping out at 98.4 mph as he worked a 1-2-3 inning in front of his brother, who hadn’t seen him pitch in three years.
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The Giants, too, haven’t seen Miles in action as much as they would have liked since drafting him in the fourth round of the 2022 MLB Draft. Miles missed the entire 2023 campaign after undergoing back surgery and then made only five appearances in ‘24 before he suffered a right flexor strain that led to season-ending Tommy John surgery.
The injuries have limited Miles to only 14 2/3 affiliated innings since turning pro, but the 6-foot-3 hurler is finally healthy and looking to make up for lost time in the Fall League this year.
The Giants are being careful with Miles’ workload since he’s coming off elbow surgery, but he’s looked sharp in his first three appearances (two starts) for Scottsdale, giving up only one unearned run over five innings while striking out seven and walking one.
“It’s been kind of weird,” Miles said. “It’s almost like a little time-travel thing. You have two surgeries, and it’s like two or three years later, and you spent three years in Arizona rehabbing. I come back, and fortunately, all my stuff and my velocities and everything is pretty much the same or a little better. I’ve been fortunate in that sense.”
Despite the setbacks, Miles remains an intriguing arm who should still have a chance to stick as a starter given his deep repertoire. He can touch the upper 90s with his sinker and four-seam fastball and also mixes in a curveball, changeup and cutter, which he developed after he was drafted.
Miles said he used to throw a slider, but a few Giants coaches -- including former director of pitching Brian Bannister and pitching coordinators Clay Rapada and Matt Yourkin -- advised him to scrap the pitch in favor of a cutter. Miles worked with Danny Hill, a fellow University of Missouri alum who runs a baseball facility in his hometown of Columbia, Mo., to find a grip that helped produce the shape he was looking for.
“Now is kind of the first time I’ve gotten to test it,” Miles said. “But it’s really opened up my arsenal, and it’s one of my better pitches. It’s 90-93 [mph], and it’s got some vertical break on it and some good horizontal [movement]. It really alleviates the four-seam because it’s kind of another fastball but kind of an off-speed because sometimes it slides a little more and turns into a little slider. It’s really helped everything, especially fastballs up.”
Miles hasn’t pitched above Single-A San Jose, but his promising showing in the Fall League should boost his stock and potentially put him in the mix to be protected from the Rule 5 Draft this offseason. He knows he’ll have to stay healthy to continue on his upward trajectory, but he could be poised for a breakthrough season now that he’s finally back to full strength.
“Obviously, I’d like to make the big leagues next season,” Miles said. “We’ll see what happens and where I start. I’d like to think of myself as kind of a wild card. I haven’t played. I’m 25, but I’m a little more experienced in between the years because of the rehab. I’m a strike-thrower, older guy. We’ll see. We’ll see where I start, but if I make the big leagues next year, that’d be nice.”