Bryce Miller began his first rehab start for Triple-A Tacoma on April 18, showing notable velocity despite some expected rust. Miller averaged 97.1 mph on his four-seam fastball and incorporated a variety of pitches, including the slider, splitter, knuckle curve, sinker, and sweeper over a total of 33 pitches during the outing. This assignment is anticipated to last up to 30 days.
The high velocity was especially apparent compared to previous performances. The four-seam fastball was up by 2.3 mph from his average in the previous season and the sinker increased by 1.9 mph—levels that reflected where he was before suffering an oblique injury.
“Velo in Spring Training was the best it’s been in a while,” Miller said on Friday. “It was really good the last couple weeks. So it’ll be good to do it in a game environment.”
In this appearance for Tacoma, Miller allowed three earned runs on four hits and one walk (to his first batter), striking out two over one and two-thirds innings as the Rainiers defeated Sacramento 6-4. All runs came during the second inning after consecutive singles led to an RBI single and a two-run double before he ended with a strikeout but did not finish the frame due to reaching his pitch limit.
Seattle Mariners general manager Justin Hollander said Friday: “Just that he’s feeling good, that he’s repeating his delivery, that he’s not compensating in any way and making changes to how his body’s moving, because he’s saying he feels fine, but his actions say otherwise… So that’s what we need to see over the next 30 days.”
Miller also outlined areas for improvement: “The main thing I need to work on is that I haven’t thrown on a pitch clock or anything or worked on pickoffs or any of this small stuff in a while. So obviously, besides getting ahead in the main stuff, that’ll be one of my main focuses.”
Looking ahead, Miller’s next step will likely involve pitching three innings or about 45 pitches next Friday at High-A Everett while Tacoma travels.
