Mason Miller just can’t help himself. Taking the mound for the first time this spring, the Padres’ newly minted closer pumped in nine fastballs of at least 100 mph against the Mariners on Friday.
“You’ve got a guy in the box in a different uniform,” Miller said. “What choice do you have? It’s go time.”
Through two February outings, Miller already looks like he’s in midseason form. He’s struck out three over two scoreless innings with his usual big-time velocity. In short, he’s precisely where he needs to be.
A different spring
Miller hit 104 mph in his first spring outing a season ago.
“If you go about your offseason right, your first outing should feel great,” he said.
But his challenge this spring is slightly different. Miller will depart Padres camp to join Team USA ahead of the World Baseball Classic in less than a week. He moved his entire winter program ahead by two weeks to accommodate.
Once he’s at the World Baseball Classic, Miller says he plans to continue to treat the group-stage games like part of his spring buildup. But when the knockout portion of the tournament begins, he’ll be attacking those games like the big games they are.
To ensure he’s ready, Miller faced hitters several times before he arrived at Padres camp -- though he had to move indoors, as he spends his offseasons in the Pittsburgh area.
“Twelve inches of snow? Twenty degrees? Nah,” Miller said.
Still in the bullpen
Miller’s name was a buzzy one in the early stages of the Padres’ offseason. The team was thin on starting pitching and looking for rotation options. They’d acquired Miller -- at great expense -- last summer. So they asked: Would Miller be more valuable to them as a starter?
Is this version of Miller more valuable across 180 innings? Of course. But there’s no guarantee -- far from it, really -- that the Padres could get this version of Miller as a starter. It was only after the A’s moved him to the ‘pen in 2024 that Miller became a star.
“Having the take of the pitcher himself -- what he wants to do, where he feels comfortable -- if there was a strong desire for him to start, we probably would have shifted and allowed him to do that,” said pitching coach Ruben Niebla. “But we also understand who we have in Mason Miller as possibly, arguably, the best closer in baseball.”
Said Miller: “I think, just right now, it makes the most sense to stay with that success, stay where I know that I’m going to make an impact on this team.”
No one is ruling out a rotation move in the future. He’s under team control through 2029 and has been working extensively on his changeup this spring in a continued effort to find a viable third pitch to add to his repertoire. With perhaps the sport’s best fastball/slider combo, there’s not much need for a third pitch in the bullpen.
But what’s spring for, if not experimenting? And if he can develop that changeup, it would give Miller something resembling a starter’s arsenal.
“I’m focused on this year, of course,” Miller said. “We’ll always have conversations, and I love how good the communication is here. I don’t feel like decisions are being made without me being a part of them. … Hopefully, touch wood, we have a lot of time together here. And who knows where it goes?”
Into the closer role
In perhaps the least surprising announcement of Spring Training, new Padres manager Craig Stammen named Miller his closer earlier this month, following Robert Suarez’s offseason departure. The Padres, of course, boast a storied tradition of great closers -- from Rollie Fingers to Goose Gossage to Trevor Hoffman.
“He fits right in,” Stammen said. “He’s going to carry on that tradition.”
Miller doesn’t seem to view his role any differently. He’s part of an elite bullpen. Whether he’s pitching the seventh, eighth or ninth isn’t all that important to him.
“Let’s build on the success that we had last year,” Miller said. “We have a lot of guys back from last year that were part of that group -- guys I am excited to see take a step forward.”
The Padres, on paper at least, boast the sport’s best bullpen. It’s deep, and it features a trio of setup options in Adrian Morejon, Jason Adam and Jeremiah Estrada who could plausibly be closers elsewhere in the league.
“Last year, we were shortening games, and it’s the same concept this year,” Niebla said. “Obviously, the guys in front of him have to get him the ball. But having that security of [Miller at closer], it puts us in a good spot.”