A’s rookie starter Mason Miller has been diagnosed with a mild sprain of the ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing elbow, the team informed reporters (including Martín Gallegos of MLB.com). He’ll be shut down from throwing for an indeterminate period of time until he’s no longer feeling discomfort.
Miller landed on the 15-day injured list with forearm tightness last week. It was almost immediately clear he’d be out beyond two weeks and the team announced yesterday that he was going for a second opinion. That raised some concern about a possible surgery. Miller will fortunately avoid going under the knife, though he seems likely to be out of action for an extended stretch. Gallegos notes the A’s are hopeful he’ll be able to pitch again at some point this season.
Injuries have unfortunately been a theme of Miller’s professional career. A third round pick in 2021, the 6’5″ righty pitched only six rookie ball innings during his post-draft summer. He lost most of the 2022 campaign to a shoulder injury, tallying only 14 innings between three minor league levels. Miller returned to log 16 2/3 frames in the Arizona Fall League to close out the year.
After two minor league starts in 2023, the A’s called him to the big leagues for the first time. It was an aggressive promotion but the 24-year-old had shown well early on. He tallied 21 2/3 innings of 3.38 ERA ball over his first four starts, striking out more than a quarter of opposing hitters. Miller showed blistering velocity and looked to be the most intriguing starter in an A’s rotation that has been the league’s worst.
The organization will have to wait a while to get a longer look at the young hurler. Miller is clearly among the most talented pitchers in the system but he’s logged just 66 2/3 innings in two years as a professional. He’ll collect major league service and be paid at the MLB minimum rate while he rehabs. Miller won’t reach a full service year in 2023 and is controllable through at least 2029.
As can’t have nice things.
Mason Miller is a communist.
Sick! Me too. Power to the players
A’s to be careful with their MaMi… He’s very talented, Medina too…
Mild…for now
A sprain is a tear, albeit one that’s not (yet) compromising the ligament. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of a UCL injury being referred to like that.
A sprain is NOT a tear.
A sprain is torn tissue. It can be a little tear, but even that is worrisome.
A sprain by definition is a partial ligament tear, no? There are 3 grades that could be assigned.
Young guy throws 100+, what do you expect?
The power sliders to explode his arm. For fastballs and changeups I’d just expect a slow general decline.
This A’s season is the worst season in the history of all sports, on and off the field
MLB is having the worst president in the history of all sports. Forbes says that the A’s were the 5th most profitable team in the league last year. Pirates were number 8. Take that, teams in the WS, we’re hella profitable!
A’s pitchers are a dying breed.
Revisiting the rumor about where the A’s will relocate … it won’t be Vegas for two reasons: the water problem and the fact that Vegas is tipping Red. Franchise owners are conservatives but the ticket-buying public is Blue. Look for relocation to Indianapolis, Jacksonville or Austin. If Charlottesville’s population was a little bigger, they’d be a consideration, too.
“”… the ticket-buying public is Blue.” Show us some evidence.
Evidence is that he read it on the Internet somewhere.
I’ll leave the “evidence” gathering to you. It’s easy enough to obtain. Due diligence.
Move him to the bullpen and make him the closer.
How often does this eventually turn into Tommy John??
Yes
He’ll be shut down from throwing until he feels better. Lol. What the article meant to say is he will be shut down from throwing until he’s recovering from Tommy John Surgery.
Still not as painful as Chaucer’s Miller’s “Tail”.
Best Case Scenario seems to be after the break in mid-July.