July 7: Miller tells Shayna Rubin of The San Francisco Chronicle that he was diagnosed with a mild UCL sprain. He’ll miss at least five weeks, but there’s no indication that surgery is yet a possibility.
July 5: The Giants announced a pair of roster moves this evening after announcing the return of Matt Chapman earlier in the day. The club placed left-hander Erik Miller on the 15-day injured list due to a left elbow sprain and selected the contract of left-hander Scott Alexander to replace him on the active roster. A 40-man roster spot was already open after the club’s DFA of Sergio Alcantara earlier today.
The loss of Miller is a significant one, as he’s served as San Francisco’s primary late-inning lefty this season. The southpaw has been utterly dominant this season with a sterling 1.50 ERA across 36 appearances, though his 17.2% strikeout rate and 3.92 FIP both suggest there’s plenty of good luck baked into that run prevention number. A look under the hood reveals Miller has managed to strand 89.4% of the baserunners he’s allowed this year, has floated a 15.6% walk rate that would raise eyebrows even with a higher strikeout rate, and that he’s managed to go all season without allowing a home run. None of that feels especially sustainable, and the cracks have begun to show in recent weeks as he’s actually walked more batters than he’s struck out over his last 18 appearances.
Despite all those red flags, the run prevention Miller has provided has been undeniable and will be nearly impossible to replace. Tyler Rogers, Randy Rodriguez, and Camilo Doval have formed a solid late-inning nucleus, but now the Giants will turn to Joey Lucchesi and Alexander as their lefty arms in the bullpen. Lucchesi has a 4.50 ERA in six innings of work, though his six strikeouts in that time are somewhat encouraging. As for Alexander, he pitched to a 6.06 ERA with a 7.01 FIP for the Rockies earlier this year but is now back in the Bay Area after spending two seasons with the Giants and one season in Oakland between 2022 and ’24.
He posted a 3.28 ERA and a 3.43 FIP in 117 appearances during that three-year stretch, and if he can unlock anything close to that production for the Giants this year he’ll be a worthy replacement for Miller in the bullpen who might even end up with more sustainable peripherals. Alexander’s production is carried primarily by high ground ball rates. His career rate entering this year stood at 67.4% and it’s never fallen below 60% in a season. That has changed this year, however, as he’s generated grounders on just 53.4% of batted balls. The Giants are surely hoping that pitching half of his games at Coors Field had an impact on his ability to keep the ball on the ground and that he’ll be able to rediscover his worm-burning ways now that he’s part of their relief corps again.
They are going to hope Mason Black can fill the void since he struggled with starting.
I missed his imploding obviously. so I guess Giants will rotate arms until they find one on the 40man that fits.
DataShark — Mason Black is a righty. At some point soon, Giants will DFA Luchessi and either bring up Carson Whisenhunt (a lefty) or trade for another lefty to join Alexander. Black will not fill the need.
If Verlander gets rocked in his next start I think Posey/Minasian might have some tough decisions to make. It’s obviously a wild card spot that they are fighting for and 3 teams tied for the final spot.I think 7 teams are fighting for 3 WC spots. No margin for error for all 7 teams. We aren’t in position to keep running JV out to pitch and put us in a hole early and then try to come back on the opponent.
Bring back Bumgarner.
Seems like we should have a look this month at Whisenhunt out of the pen (for now) to have a better idea as what the trade deadline needs are going to be. If Miller does come back (no surgery needed) they could then stretch Whisenhunt back out for a spot in the rotation – as it feels like counting on JV for the whole season (and Roupp and Birdsong to pitch a lot more innings than they ever have before) is a bridge too far.
UCL ‘sprain’ isn’t like a sprained wrist. It’s a tear of the UCL….a small tear. But a tear nonetheless
He’s done. It’s just a matter of time
Right. We probably won’t see him for a month mimimum. It sucks we lost Miller for awhile so next man up. Joey Luchessi, Scott Alexander are the lefty’s now.
It’s isn’t necessarily a small tear. The term sprained UCL can mean anything from a mild strain to a tear.
Tough break. Miller has strange numbers, 22ks and 20 walks in 30 innings. He’s gotten himself out of some sticky situations with base runners but he seems to create them with walks, wild pitches, etc. I think it’s time to bring up Whisenhunt. They’ve stretched him out as a starter so it’ll be interesting to see what they do.
Massive part of the early season bullpen heroics. Always confidant when he was in the game. Big loss.
He was seriously heading in the wrong direction. He was lucky as heck early on. Not a significant loss at all.