Next up in our look back at the A’s players in 2025, we turn back to the reliever role and remember our shortened time with Mason Miller. He was one of the most electric arms in A’s recent history and we clearly
miss him, but did his departure help improve the team long-term?
How was he acquired?
Mason Miller was the Oakland A’s third-round draft pick in the 2021 MLB June Amateur Draft out of Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina. He played there for one season as a graduate student. After relatively short stints with A’s minor league affiliates in Arizona, Lansing, and Las Vegas in 2022, he started the 2023 season in AA Midland for one start, then moved to Las Vegas for one start with the Aviators before being called up to the A’s in late April. He made four starts before injuring his UCL and was placed on the 60-day Injured list. He returned in September in a reliever’s role.
What were the expectations?
Miller returned healthy in 2024 for what would in essence be his rookie season. Expectations were high as he entered the season for the first time as a full-time reliever with one of the strongest arms in the business. In fact, he was named as the teams closer before the season started. He lived up to those expectations starting the season eight-for-eight in save opportunities and being named the American League Reliever of the Month for April. He followed those accolades up with being named as a pitching reserve for the AL All-Star team. He finished the season with twenty-eight saves and a 2.49 ERA with 104 strikeouts in fifty-five innings.
2025 Results
The 2025 season started for Miller with the first-ever save at Sutter Health Park. He was not nearly as dominant as he was during the 2024 season, giving up nearly as many homers and earned runs in thirty-eight games with the A’s as in the entire previous season. But still, the mere call to the bullpen evoked fear in the opposing hitters, because it his best Miller was unhittable. A’s fans were more than a little surprised when he was traded at the deadline to San Diego for four prospects. The Athletics traded Miller and JP Sears to the Padres for RHP Henry Baez, RHP Eduarniel Núñez, SS Leo De Vries and RHP Braden Nett. The cornerstone of the trade was De Vries, who is just 19 is rated as the team’s No. 1 prospect and the No. 3 overall prospect in the MLB.
Miller was not immediately inserted in the closer’s role but did log two saves and ten holds pitching in high leverage situations for the friars. His final stat line for the year was a 2.63 ERA, twenty-two saves, and 104 strikeouts in sixty games for the Athletics and Padres.
2026 Outlook
The biggest question regarding Miller’s future with the Padres is unanswered; will he be a starter or remain in the bullpen. Miller has proven his dominance during the late innings and has not gone more than two innings since May 7, 2023, other than a three-inning relief stint at the end of the 2023 season. But the Padres starting pitching corps is hurting. Dylan Cease and Michael King are both free agents, and Nestor Cortes and Yu Darvish will miss all the 2026 season with injuries. New Padres manager Craig Stammen has addressed the issue with the media but has not committed anything more than the fact that they’ll be discussing it with Miller before moving forward.
It remains to be seen if the trade netted the A’s more than they lost. Only time will tell, but there is plenty of excitement in the air about our new number one prospect Leo De Vries!
