The Giants recently signed reliever Shelby Miller on a minor league contract. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Sacramento, where he made his first appearance on Wednesday.
Miller had opened the season in the Yankees’ organization on a non-roster deal. According to his transactions log at MLB.com, he was released on May 31. The right-hander was one of a host of veterans afforded an automatic June 1 opt-out possibility by the collective bargaining agreement. Whether he triggered that provision or was simply let go by the Yankees isn’t clear, but in either event, he’s quickly landed a new opportunity.
A high-end starting pitcher during his early days with the Cardinals and Braves, Miller has had some highly-publicized struggles since the D-Backs parted with Dansby Swanson and Ender Inciarte to acquire him before the 2016 season. He didn’t perform well during his first season in the desert, and he missed most of the 2017-18 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. Miller was hit hard in a swing role with the Rangers in 2019, then opted out of the 2020 campaign. He returned to the big leagues with the Cubs and Pirates last year but was tagged for a 9.24 ERA with more walks than strikeouts in 12 2/3 combined innings.
Now 31 years old, Miller is having a nice year in the minors. He pitched in 16 games with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, logging 21 innings with a 1.71 ERA. His .231 BABIP indicates there’s some good fortune there, but he’s also earning it to some degree with a 29.4% strikeout rate and 7.1% walk rate. Since switching organizations, he’s made one scoreless appearance for the Sacramento River Cats.
He’ll provide depth for a Giants’ bullpen that has been a bit disappointing so far this year. Their collective 4.41 ERA places them 24th among MLB teams, though advanced metrics are a bit kinder, as they have a 3.77 FIP, 4.08 xFIP and 3.79 SIERA.
If they get Value out of This Guy. The Giants are a Godsend
He used to be a solid pitcher in his early 20’s, I’m sure the SF staff remembers the rotations of those early 2010’s Cardinals very well.
Lolgiants
One of the best run organizations in the sport, I dunno what you’re lol’ing about. You one of these types has to rag on every move that doesn’t involve an all star?
The Giants. LOL
Chill bro just memeing Tonygwynnsd19
Lol
@Cosmo. See your mistake was being reasonable among a bunch of smooth brain, window licking, state sponsored gorilla’s. Next time you want to communicate with these moose knuckles, try a series of grunts and clicks. Go slow though.
Really hope he is able to reestablish himself. He was a joy to watch how dominant he can be with the Braves even though that record was a bummer but it didn’t reflect how well he was actually pitching.
Why can’t this team ever just make a splash
I wonder if they can coax Roger Clemens or Randy Johnson or Nolan Ryan out of retirement. Now one of those would be a splash.
Because those generally turn out poorly for the team and they seem to be showing they don’t really need to
Agreed. Splashes are great for fans, very hit and miss for sustained and consistent success on the field.
But remember the time Steinbrenner got Clemens to return and Clemens even announced the decision live from a luxury box at Yankee Stadium during a game?? Now imagine the splash it would be if the ghosts of Christy Mathewson AND Mel Ott did the same thing. My votes for living options would be Randy Johnson and Barry Bonds with Jeff Kent as a potential stand-in if Bonds has been excommunicated from baseball since his ill-fated stint as the Marlins hitting coach/cycling instructor.
Not Zaidi’s style. Saving all that money. Dumpster diving in hopes of finding lightning in a bottle.
But Shelby Miller??? C’mon. The only thing in that bottle is pipe dream smoke. No cost to Giants, I guess, but Miller’s been awful for years.
Because this team isn’t run by meatheads like the Angels
Make a splash? Three WS victories in five years doesn’t count? It wasn’t THAT long ago.
Good move for the Giants. Miller has reinvented himself as reliever. He pitched well in Scranton in that role. That the Yankees didn’t add him to the 40-man speaks volumes about the quality of their bullpen.
Speaking of the Yankees bullpen, it’s been better since Chapman went on the IL. He’s been awful. He’s in his final contract. If the Yankees can’t trade him they should DFA him instead.
Speaking of adjectives for you: reasonable and rational.
Having a good year in the minors like many many other pitchers.
Good pickup in wake that they just lost another starter (Junis) to injury. I laugh at Tony “the troll” Gwynn’s comments. So chicken he can’t even use his real name, POS.
He was amazing to watch in his one season in Atlanta. Even if he was never destined to be the TOR arm many thought he could be, it’s still a shock to see this fall off since that Miller-Swanson trade.
Probably pitched through an injury early in Arizona so they could justify the splashes of him and Grienke. Never was right again.
I always thought the Cardinals knew something that others didn’t when they traded him to the Braves. I’m not suggesting it was an injury they knew about but was more likely something in the analytics or the metrics (rising strikeout rate, rising walk rate) something that didn’t inspire confidence in the front office. Jason Heyward was at best inconsistent (and at worst already declining) with the bat when they made the trade. The Cardinals opted for one year of Jason Heyward over three or four years of control of a young starter. That never felt right.
His year in atlanta was the outlier, I think what he was in STL and ARI is more just who he is/was.
That was an awful trade for the dbacks. Swanson has been a pretty solid MLB player (~2.5fwar/600pas) and inciarte was also good during the years of control they actually traded for.
The Giants can turn any pitcher into a Cy contender.
Let me be the first to state the obligatory, “Wow, what a great low cost, low risk move by SF! A stroke of genius if you ask me, and if it doesn’t work they lose nothing.” I prob could have done better if I’d borrowed a pair of rose colored glasses from someone in the wine & cheese crowd, but I still think I nailed it.
Wow, what a great low cost, low risk move by SF! A stroke of genius if you ask me, and if it doesn’t work they lose nothing.
Shelby Miller’s agent should get a reward for earning him millions of dollars off of 1 year in 2015 and then on minor league contracts. He a emergency arm and a career AAAA.
Giants need bullpen help desperately so this is a no harm, throw it against the wall and see what sticks move. Right up Zaidi’s alley and his track record for making gold out of dog crap has been pretty strong.
Yeah, but this one’s quite a reach.
A huuuuge reach. He’s been two wins BELOW replacement level over the last five or so years. He’s got about a .0001% chance of contributing anything positive.
Yeah, I think Miller’s there to fill out the Sac roster when someone else gets called up.
I moved to Phoenix a couple of years ago, shocked at how bad the DBACKS are year after year, former players Paul Goldschmidt, JD Martinez, Max Scherzer, that might be the worst I trade in the MLB