Andrew Miller on a possible return to the rotation: 'That ship has kind of sailed'
Miller doesn't believe his bullpen dominance would carry over into the rotation
By
Mike Axisa
•
3 min read
CLEVELAND -- Thus far this postseason, one of the biggest trends has been managers relying heavily on their bullpen. We saw Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen enter Game 5 of the NLDS in the seventh inning earlier this week, and of course Indians skipper Terry Francona has been very aggressive with bullpen ace Andrew Miller.
Through three postseason appearances Miller has struck out 12 of 22 batters faced in 5 2/3 scoreless innings. Opponents are hitting .158/.227/.263 against him. This comes after a regular season in which Miller struck out 123 batters in 74 1/3 innings. Batters put up a meager .160/.193/.294 batting line against him. He's been otherworldly.
Miller first emerged as a dominant bullpen piece back in 2013 with the Red Sox, and he's simply gotten better and better in each season. This all started when Bobby Valentine helped him simplify his delivery in 2012. Here are the new and old versions of Miller's delivery:
Huge difference! Pretty much the only good thing Valentine did during his lone season as Red Sox manager was fix Andrew Miller. He helped him this lanky 6-foot-7 lefty simplify his delivery and throw more consistent strikes. As a result, Miller went from a bad starter -- he has a career 5.70 ERA in 325 innings as a starter -- to dominant reliever.
Now that Miller has found what works for him mechanically, does he have any interest in being a starter again? After all, starters make way more money than relievers, plus ace-caliber starters are more valuable than elite relievers. He'd benefit personally, and so would the Indians.
Miller doesn't see it that way though. He considers himself a reliever.
"I think that ship has kind of sailed," said Miller on Saturday when asked about starting again. "I had my chance. There's times where I'm out there and I'm locating pretty well, and I feel like I can kind of command all over the place, and I move the ball around and make it do what I want. I think about how nice it would be to throw 100 pitches and have the schedule (starters have). But ultimately I've kind of found what fits for me."
There's much more to this than mechanics, of course. Miller is a two-pitch pitcher who doesn't throw a changeup. They're two great pitches, but still. What happens when his fastball goes from 94-96 mph as a reliever to 91-93 mph as a starter? Does that knockout slider lose effectiveness? It's not as simple as, okay, his mechanics are fixed, make him a starter again and he's still be this good.
In recent years we've seen more than a few relievers become very good starters. Aaron Sanchez did it with the Blue Jays just this season. C.J. Wilson, Jeff Samardzija, and Chris Sale all did it in recent years too.
There are also cautionary tales like Daniel Bard and Neftali Feliz. Bard permanently lost the strike zone when the Red Sox made him a starter, and Feliz blew out his elbow.
At this point, Miller is so outrageously good in relief that transitioning him back to the rotation is far too risky. The upside is high if he can carry his success over, no doubt. But this also comes with a ton of risk. We're not talking about your garden variety middle reliever here. This is one of the single most dominant forces in the game. You don't mess with that. There's nothing wrong with being an ace reliever.
"The bullpen is a lot of fun. I like coming to the ballpark every day and knowing I have a chance to pitch," said Miller. "And it's worked out really well for me, so I don't see a reason to look for anything else."
