Bryce Miller was a fourth round pick by the Mariners in the 2021 MLB draft and never appeared higher than 98th on MLB Pipeline’s Top-100 prospect list.
Still, he reached the major leagues after just 160 total innings in the minors and enjoyed immediate success. That success faded quickly, but he’s done an incredible job reinventing himself as a pitcher over his brief career and looks to be on the verge of stardom.
Here, I’m going to talk about the adjustments he made on his way to breaking out, why they worked, and what to expect from him next season.
I’m writing these break out pieces every week. Check out how Hunter Greene is on the path to becoming an ace from last week and how Tarik Skubal became the best pitcher in baseball two weeks ago.
Pitching is Easy?
Bryce Miller burst onto the scene in 2023 as a fastball-forward, power pitcher who wasn’t afraid to challenge hitters. Initially, that was a great plan.
In his MLB debut, he took a perfect game into the sixth inning. Over his first five starts, he had a sparkling 1.15 ERA – lowest in the league – with 28 strikeouts, three walks, and completed at least six innings in each start.
At the same time, Miller was throwing his fastball 70% of the time. That was more often than any other pitcher in baseball. And it worked because he came to the majors with one of the most explosive fastballs in the league.
It had above average velocity, significantly above average induced vertical break, was difficult to barrel up, and hitters had no answers despite Miller filling up the zone with it.
Everything was perfect! Easy, even. Show up and throw a bunch of fastballs in the strike zone. They’ll never hit it, right? This major league baseball thing is simple.
Well, that turned out to not be true. The Yankees lit Miller up for eight runs in his next start and he went on to have a 5.31 ERA over his next 20 outings to end his rookie season. He began to tinker a bit during these struggles by adding a two-seam fastball and sweeper while more changeups, but couldn’t pull himself together.
That gave him a new tenacity to attack the offseason with. Thomas Nestico wrote a great thread about how Miller used science to become an ace and this excerpt he used taken from an interview with Brandon Gustafson says it all.
Passion, open-mindedness, creativity, desire to be great, whatever you want to call it was at the center of Miller’s…