The Diamondbacks announced tonight that they have optioned struggling right-hander Shelby Miller to Triple-A Reno. Arizona did not announce a corresponding move at this time.
Just four months ago, this would’ve been an unthinkable outcome for Miller, who was coming off his finest season as a Major Leaguer. The 25-year-old posted a 3.02 ERA with 7.5 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 205 innings in his lone season with the Braves after coming to Atlanta in the December 2014 Jason Heyward swap. That performance led the D-backs to part with an king’s ransom — center fielder Ender Inciarte, 2014 first-round pick Aaron Blair and 2015 No. 1 overall pick Dansby Swanson — to acquire Miller in a trade this summer.
However, the 2016 has been a disaster for Miller, whose 7.14 ERA is the third-highest in all of baseball among pitchers with at least 60 innings pitched. He’s missed some time this season with a finger injury but struggled even in his return from the disabled list, posting a 7.23 ERA over his final four starts prior to the All-Star break. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic tweets that Miller said he understands why he’s being sent down and candidly added that he was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner.
Miller’s trade was among the most talked-about swaps in recent history, as many considered the price paid by the D-backs to be exorbitant in nature. However, even the most adamant detractors of the deal have been surprised by the struggles of Miller, which have played a major role in what has been a disappointing season for the Diamondbacks overall. Arizona lost center fielder A.J. Pollock, one of the game’s top all-around players, for much (if not all) of the 2016 season before Opening Day, and it watched $206.5MM starter Zack Greinke falter out of the gates as well. The D-backs have also lost right-hander Rubby De La Rosa to the disabled list for most of the season to date, and the club’s projected No. 3 starter, Patrick Corbin, has had issues of his own. While Corbin’s woes haven’t been as pronounced as those of Miller, he’s currently toting a 4.94 ERA after pitching to a 3.47 mark between his two most recent healthy seasons (2015 and 2013).
The end result for the Diamondbacks has been a 38-52 record and a last-place standing in the NL West that few would have predicted following their flashy offseason. The D-backs have reluctantly begun to operate as sellers, having already traded Brad Ziegler to the Red Sox.
Wheres all those people at I used to get in an argument with when they said Miller was a #1?
He’s looking more like #2 right now.
How many Courics?
40!
I wanna know where that Dback fan is that told me they would win 96 games. Damn I wish I remembered his name. I would go back and look if I weren’t so lazy
scottaz
They are making the argument that Teheran is a #1 now
Ya but then this isn’t the first time Teheran has put up ace like stats. Look at his production. He’s had just one bad year and it wasn’t THAT bad.
Yep. You were right everyone else was wrong. Calm your ego, pal.
wow. I hope for the D-backs sake he turns things around down there. This trade is looking like a clunker and one for the ages.
Not only that, but even the trade that brought him to Atlanta is looking better from the Cardinals’ perspective even with them getting hardly anything out of Walden.
Good thing we dodged that bullet, I always bought it was crazy how much the Dbacks gave up for Shelby Miller.
Yeah, I don’t know how Arizona didn’t see that coming especially with TLR knowing the Cards organization pretty well. Both teams that had Miller before Dbacks turned out pretty well:
St. Louis: One year of Gold Glover Heyward, extra pick in 2016 draft as compensation, which allowed them to take a risk with SS Delvin Perez
Braves: Swanson, Inciarte (Ect.)
There is no way Miller has any value after this, to any team. As if now, Miller likely won’t fetch someone like Heyward, and definitely wouldn’t get you package like they sent to Atlanta. Dbacks are stuck with him, and they better pray he progresses. Those are trades that dismantle regimes.
A trade like that can set a team back years
Ooooo..we fleeced the d backs so bad. Blair has an ERA of almost 8…Inciarte has hit .220 or worse all year (mostly singles) and Dansby may turn out to be the only decent one and he’s hitting .260 in AA….so please get it right for once. People on here talk like we got Lou Gherig add and Teddy ballgame for Shelby..who BTW was one of the best pitchers in baseball in ’15..not our fault AZ’s pitching coach has changed his entire delivery for no reason this year…he had an ERA of under 2.5 though like June last year..throwing 97mph and commanding all his pitches perfectly….blame AZ..but this so called kings ransom bs is getting old…if we’d gotten Pollack instead of Inciarte I’d understand, but we got nothing even close
Are you an idiot?
It’s kind of nice having a team as hapless as the Diamondbacks in my favorite team’s division, but at the same time, I do feel bad for the fans. And I hope they don’t have to fund another stadium to host the same garbage organization.
Agreed. As a Dodgers fan, I’m absolutely fine with Arizona putting a crap product on the field. But gotta empathize with their hardcore fans – must be a tough pill to swallow watching the Front Office botch things up.
If it’s any consolation, I remember the McCourt years vividly. Tough times do pass by.
Why, many of them thought there were terriffic moves and that the dbacks were gonna win 94 games and compete for the nl west crown
That was like 2 people. I’m a D-Back fan and hated the trade the moment it happened, although I didn’t realize he would be this bad. It happens. Good corps of young players, wouldn’t be surprising to be competitive again by 2017, although admittedly the farm system is kinda terrible, so a full rebuild nasty be in store after next year if they struggle again
As a Padres fan, I’m happy it isn’t us anymore.
Who knows, he could turn it around next year and maybe a healthy team makes a strong playoff push then. It’s still in their window of oppurtunity. If they win a world series next year or the one after with him there it looks like a genius trade. The prospects could always flop as they are wont to do and it will be a wash. Both long shots the way things look now, but you never know.
Dimondbacks didn’t part with him, braves did.
Yikes, but just wait in 3 years when they’re paying half of Greinke’s salary to play somewhere else.
Braves will take him back you guys want Hector Olivera ????
I would take that deal in a second!!! Give Shelby back to McDowell and see if he can solve the Miller puzzle box
Damn. I never thought it was a great trade, but man it looks bad. Never thought Shelby would be this bad. Maybe a 4 ERA at most, but over 7?
This summer? How about winter as it was an offseason trade.
One silver lining AZ could shoot for: keep Miller down until September and gain a year of team control. Maybe he’ll turn things around and they’ll still get their three good years of him starting next year.
Hmm, that would work. He had just over 3 years of service time at the beginning of the season, so even just a couple of weeks in the Minors might be enough to keep him from reaching his 4th year by the end of the season.
As a Braves fan, I feel for Shelby. Dating back to his earlier days as a Cardinal, I’ve always loved him. He was the consummate professional last season, despite having literally one of the worst offensive help in baseball history. I was looking forward to a few more years of Shelby, but obviously that package was too much to pass up. I hope he figures out whatever ales him because he isn’t this bad a pitcher.
This has to go down as one of the worst trades ever in the game.
that largely depends on the successes of Swanson and Blair
very true
Maybe this will make up for when they gave up Adam Wainwright (as well as Ray King and Jason Marquis) for just a year each of J.D. Drew and Eli Marrero.
Shelby Miller was a young pitcher with a low 3.22 ERA over almost 600 career innings coming into this season and his supporters were claiming that he was a TOR pitcher who could keep this up long term. However, his peripherals were telling us that he wasn’t nearly as good as that, evidenced by his 3.82 FIP and 4.08 xFIP. He was also moving from a pitcher friendly home park into a very hitter friendly home park. Most people are probably very surprised by how bad he has been, but many expected him to take a large step back and see his performance fall in line with what his numbers have been telling us his true talent to be. This is Shelby Miller regressing to his true talent. I’m sure over the next few years he’ll settle in as the 4.00-4.25 ERA pitcher his peripherals have shown him to be.
I don’t know what’s up with him this year, but you can’t just automatically blame it on peripheral regression. It has been shown that there is some skill involved in outpitching your FIP, not a lot but it does exist.
LOL! It reminds me of the time Todd Hundley got doubled up on 3rd base playing for the Mets!
You and the peripherals. Those numbers were before Westbrook taught him the sinker and Roger perfected it. Shelby is a good pitcher the minors may be the best place for him in order to bounce back. That’s the thing with theses teams pitching philosophies in organizations. Look at the Orioles with Arietta they tried changing him up after he got drafted and screwed him up. Bodily got ahold of him and let him pitch the way he feels comfortable. Shelby was a perfect McDowell disciple. Just like Stewart was perfect for Dave Duncan. Problem with Arizona they believe in pitchers pitching a certain way and Shelby don’t fit their way.
Well they did have to restock the farm after they traded it to get him
It’s a little early to call the trade a complete bust. Yes Miller is having a bad season, but he still is a really good starting pitcher r at worse could be converted into a solid RP. He had multiple seasons in St. Louis where he was solid, and a really good three or four starter. I would’ve loved to have him on my team a few years back and was in love with him at the time. I thought he he had major potential. It seems like the trade, in the kings ransom, Arizona gave up along with his failing mechanics possibly went to his head and yes he’s having a terrible season. However as we’ve seen with many pictures, one bad season doesn’t mean he’s done and a bust. his failing mechanics are for sure a major issue, anybody that’s watch the Diamondbacks the season the scene and scraping is AN time and time again. There’s something wrong with him and it needs to be figured out. He should’ve been sent down sooner. However as we’ve seen with many pictures, one bad season doesn’t mean they were will forever be devoid of talent and never put on a bigwig uniform again. If you look at his overall numbers, it’s likely he will eventually get back to that point. They’re getting multiple years of Miller, we all know Arizona gave up way too much to get him, but it’s very possible he can work out the finger scraping the mound issues along with his mental issues and still be a starter Who contributes. It’s way too early to call the strata bus Who contributes. It’s way too early to call the trade a bust. Miller could come back and be solid, with another year of control if he stays down inAAA long enough, and return to his former mid-3 era ways. I personally think he’s more of a 4-5 starter with 4ish era potential but he’s done well I. The past, and is young. However, if I were an AZ fan I would have pulled my hair out when I first learned of the trade and I would not be banking on Shelby being a top of the rotation guy… But it’s way way to early to tell.
Yes, but even he could learn from watching video of Dave Kingman when he was a Met
Shout out to the ignorant Diamondbacks fans who thought this was a great trade last offseason haha take a seat
Does anyone think this falls on whomever the Diamondbacks pitching coach is? Yes it’s a hitter friendly park but weird that top pitchers are struggling. Everyone blames the player but coaches need to be held accountable too otherwise what’s the point in having them?
Yes. I believe it’s 100% on the pitching coach for him not having his mechanics down. And hitting his hand and scraping it on the mound is unacceptable. Add that to him clearly being impacted psychologically by thinking he’s the next two starter, I would definitely put blame on the staff for not preparing them properly … However Miller obviously has to take some of the blame as well but he’s a young pitcher with 5-600 innings? A coach like Righetti would have kept Miller up to his previous potential… (Imo)
I agree. I think people put so much pressure on the individual yet the complexities of a minor adjustment is often something a third party needs to see. I know personally I have benefitted a great deal from good coaches and regressed under bad coaches. But I never made it to the bigs so it’s a whole different deal.
Sometimes players go through extended slumps. If the trade hadn’t appeared so lopsided at the time, no one would pay much attention to the slump or the demotion. He had talent, and he will be back. Is he King Felix? No, of course not.
The most lopsided trade of the off-season is quickly turning into one of the most lopsided in the last decade….
Everyone knew this trade was bad when it happened. Even if miller was good. Safe to say nobody expected this bad of a performance out of him.
Really? I’m looking for the person who predicted that Miller would have by far the worst season of his career.
That’s not what he’s saying. He said the trade was bad even if Miller had a good year. They gave up the #1 pick last year, a very good defensive CF (which they could now use) and a first round pick from two years ago, for Miller.
While Miller isn’t bad when he’s on, he’s far from the TOR type haul they gave up for him.
He said no one expected him to be this bad, even those who predicted he would regress.
I’m saying that if Miller had performed to his career averages this year, and the D’backs didn’t have all those other unrelated setbacks, and were in contention, the “everybody knew” contingent would be a lot smaller. I am not going to get into the hopeless “what they gave up” debate if only because it has no bearing whatsoever on whether the D’backs had a reasonable expectation of Miller being the #2 they desperately needed for the team to compete in the window where they saw an opportunity for it.
If you checked his peripherals then you knew this was possible if not certain.
His peripherals didn’t suggest an ERA over 7!!!
But isn’t that the point of citing these so-called peripheral stats? Because no matter what happens, somebody can always go deep enough into the statistical weeds to find a number to show that it was totally predicable.
As a Braves fan, I really feel for Shelby, he’s a great person and deserves better. I’m confident he’ll rebound and find what made him so good last year.
He was fairly decent last year. Certainly not great.
He said Shelby is a great person
Teheran is just as bad as Miller. So Braves fans cool your jets.
Teheran just as bad as Miller? Poor troll attempt, I will give you your first reply.
Wow, poor diamondbacks. Their situation is looking more and more bad as the season progresses.
One thing I will say is enciarte and blair look like garbage as well. I know he’s been injured but what happened to him? That braves lineup doesn’t help him that’s for sure.
Adam Jones for Erik Bedard type f-up.
How is Dave Stewart still employed? This trade was universally panned. They gutted the farm and Atlanta got fat on talent.
I agree. Dave Stewart doesn’t seem to be making great trades. I really like him too and want him to do a great job. I think they went all in on a “win now” strategy. Is there any talk of them blowing the tram up? Their home game W-L stats are just baffling to me.
Good thing the D-Backs kept their second rounder like they stated so that they have something to fall back on after losing two first round picks!
Every fan wants their team to “win” the trade but I just flat out feel bad about this. I wanted Miller to pitch well for the Diamond Backs especially because the Braves got a great return for him. Miller’s young enough that he can hopefully turn it around. It’s difficult to believe that Miller is REALLY as bad as he has been.
The entire concept of “winning a trade” is an abstraction, especially when a team is deliberately trading some of its future for a part of its present. Winning a trade is of no value if it doesn’t result in winning games and pennants.
Ooooo..we fleeced the d backs so bad. Blair has an ERA of almost 8…Inciarte has hit .220 or worse all year (mostly singles) and Dansby may turn out to be the only decent one and he’s hitting .260 in AA….so please get it right for once. People on here talk like we got Lou Gherig add and Teddy ballgame for Shelby..who BTW was one of the best pitchers in baseball in ’15..not our fault AZ’s pitching coach has changed his entire delivery for no reason this year…he had an ERA of under 2.5 though like June last year..throwing 97mph and commanding all his pitches perfectly….blame AZ..but this so called kings ransom bs is getting old…if we’d gotten Pollock instead of Inciarte I’d understand, but we got nothing even close