Shelby Miller was already evolving once I talked to him for FanGraphs previous to the 2016 season. As addressed in that interview, the right-hander had markedly altered his pitch utilization in 2015, a season through which he logged a 3.02 ERA over 205 1/3 innings in his lone marketing campaign with the Atlanta Braves. Little might he have imagined what number of extra modifications had been coming.
Initially drafted nineteenth total by the Cardinals out of a Texas highschool, Miller spent components of three seasons with St. Louis, putting third within the NL Rookie of the Yr voting in 2013, earlier than he was the principle return for Atlanta within the Jason Heyward commerce in November of 2014. After we spoke for that earlier submit, he was ramping up for his first season with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who a couple of months earlier had acquired him within the Dansby Swanson commerce.
Now, eight organizations later (11 whole for these holding rating at house), Miller is 33 and recording high-leverage outs with the Detroit Tigers, who in December signed him to a one-year, $3.25 million take care of a membership possibility for 2025. And never solely have his repertoire and utilization continued to evolve through the years — final season with the Los Angeles Dodgers was particularly notable — however they’re presently in flux. The combination that Miller has employed this season over 5 aid outings comprising seven scoreless innings will not be what you see the subsequent time he takes the mound. Extra on that in a second.
After I caught up with Miller throughout spring coaching, the very first thing I wished to know was how being with so many groups has impacted him as a pitcher.
“While you bounce round slightly bit, you’re employed with quite a lot of coaches and so they all may need totally different concepts on what works finest for you,” mentioned Miller, whose journey has included a spate of accidents. “For instance, I’ve at all times had an ideal fastball, however L.A. was form of honing in on what I might pair with that to make it even higher. We added a splitter final 12 months, which was an enormous pitch for me. However yeah, I believe it’s simply listening to what all people has to say and at all times discovering methods to attempt to get higher. After all, you’ve clearly bought to be comfy with what they’re operating by you.”
The brand new splitter match Miller like a pair of plush slippers. Opposing hitters batted simply .136 with a .250 slug in opposition to the providing final 12 months, factoring closely into his 1.71 ERA and a 25.8% strikeout price over 42 aid innings. A largely clear invoice of well being didn’t harm, however the splitter he featured 26.2% of the time actually performed a significant function in what was his finest season in almost a decade.
He’d toyed with a splitter beforehand. That was with Atlanta in 2015, however as has additionally been the case with the changeup he has thrown sometimes through the years, he couldn’t develop a superb really feel for it. That modified after he signed with the Dodgers in December 2022. Miller reported to spring camp early and, with the assistance of assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness, started engaged on a splitter with a special grip than he’d used beforehand. Miller described it as being just like the one thrown by his Tigers teammate Kenta Maeda, with a objective of getting “one-seam motion, that one-seam shift impact, dive and run.”
The Dodgers rank among the many sport’s most superior and data-driven organizations, so it’s becoming that they had been the workforce that helped him take his sport to a brand new stage.
“After I was developing by the Cardinals system it was all simply visible,” Miller mentioned. “It was, ‘Man, that’s a handsome pitch; that’s going to work.’ We had been form of doing it that method, then the sport started evolving when it comes to determining the way you’re going to get swings-and-misses and smooth contact early in counts. It’s all about attempting to place that good puzzle collectively, and that’s at all times evolving. Who is aware of what comes subsequent? However I do know that I just like the fastball-splitter-slider combo proper now.”
The slider has been a part of his repertoire evolution, and it’s on the crux of his present pitch-mix flux.
“I had a cutter from 2014 to 2018, and I in all probability threw it in Texas slightly bit in 2019 as properly,” Miller defined. “I’ve added a brand new slider this 12 months that’s form of cutter-y. It’s extra like a bullet slider, a gyro slider that’s more durable. I don’t actually like throwing the large sweeping slider to lefties. Like I mentioned, I’m at all times discovering new methods and seeing what works.”
In our spring coaching dialog, Miller advised me that the gyro slider isn’t a alternative for the sweeper; somewhat, it’s an extra providing that offers him a four-pitch repertoire. Nevertheless, that hadn’t turned out to be the case throughout his first 4 outings. At that time, he’d thrown 74 pitches within the common season: 54 four-seamers, 12 splitters, eight gyros‚ and 0 sweepers.
So what occurred? Why had he not less than quickly deserted his sweeper?
“You see much more of them across the league, so hitters are getting used to that pitch,” Miller mentioned once I requested him about it on Monday at PNC Park, the place the Tigers had been taking part in the Pirates. “I’m additionally engaged on the newer slider, the gyro, though it hasn’t been as efficient as I need. I believe it’s getting slightly nearer, however I’m undoubtedly fighting it a contact.
“The sweeper is a pitch I’m extra comfy with, as a result of I’ve thrown it the previous two or three years, so it’s not as if I’m not going to convey it again. I used to be really simply throwing it in catch play and it was actually, actually good. When it comes to how I wish to profile, the bullet makes extra sense, it’s simply not a superb pitch proper now. That is one thing I’ve bought to get found out. I’m in all probability fairly near throwing sweepers once more.”
Miller proceeded to take the mound the next day and wanted simply seven pitches in a fast one-two-three inning. None of them had been splitters or gyro sliders. As an alternative, he threw six fastballs and one sweeper. (It’s value noting right here that Baseball Savant tracks Miller’s gyros as cutters and his sweepers as sliders.)
When Miller mentioned in Pittsburgh that his preferrred pitch combine going ahead would come with an honest dose of these gyro sliders as a result of “the bullet makes extra sense,” I assumed again to one thing he advised me in spring coaching that spells out the reasoning.
“I believe the most important factor that makes pitchers good — this from speaking to hitters all through my profession — is discovering pitches that suit your throws the perfect, suit your arm slot finest,” Miller mentioned. “I can exit and throw a giant 12-6 curveball with a better arm slot, or a greater changeup if I drop down, however which pitches mould your supply the perfect? Connor McGuiness, with the Dodgers final 12 months, was like, ‘I believe you may throw a cut up out of your fastball slot, and the pitches can tunnel identically.’ That’s what you need, your pitches popping out of the identical space, the identical tunnel.
“Coaching with guys within the offseason… and also you’ll normally see this with younger guys who’re chasing the numbers on TrackMan. They wish to have the most important slider. They wish to have the perfect no matter on paper, on the pc, and it appears to be like superb, however it may not match what you’re attempting to do. A hitter could be like, ‘Oh, that appears totally different; right here comes a changeup,’ since you dropped down slightly. So, what as a pitcher makes you actually good? First off, you need to be constant along with your supply. You wish to throw constant shapes, and clearly you’ve bought to be within the strike zone.”
“The numbers may be fairly, however take me for an instance. My splitter, on paper, may not be the prettiest — it’s like six [inches of vertical movement] with no matter run — however my fastball is so excessive, vert-wise, that makes my splitter actually good, regardless that it’s in all probability not more than league common.”
Deep into an up-and-down profession, Miller is performing properly in Detroit. Once more, he’s but to permit a run in seven innings. As for the truth that he’s toeing the rubber for yet one more workforce, that’s not one thing he might have imagined when he signed his first skilled contract.
“I assumed I used to be going to be in St. Louis ceaselessly,” Miller mentioned. “The journey has been totally different. Quite a lot of them have been very brief stints, however L.A. final 12 months was a deal with. I liked all the fellows over there. My D-backs days had been quite a lot of enjoyable, regardless that I used to be harm quite a bit. St. Louis early. Aside from that, I didn’t actually even have time to settle in with organizations. So, this can be a giant one. Hopefully we exit and care for enterprise and I spend slightly bit extra time in Detroit than only one 12 months.”