Bryce Miller built on his solid first rehab start in Tacoma with an even more impressive outing in Everett this past Friday night. Slated to go three innings or 45 pitches, Miller’s start went perfectly to plan; he needed just 47 pitches to complete three full scoreless innings. He racked up six strikeouts, issuing just one walk, and addressed the media postgame about his outing.
“Everything felt good,” he said. “Felt like I located everything well. I think I got all seven pitches in and located them
well, and was able to get ahead most times.”
Miller was able to throw all seven of his pitches, focusing mostly on throwing the fastball and sinker, which together consumed about half of his pitch count. As he worked the third inning, though, he switched over to throwing his secondaries almost exclusively, spending equal time with the slider, sweeper, curveball, splitter, and cutter.
The cutter is a newer addition to Miller’s arsenal; since introducing it in 2024, he’s thrown it rarely, but utilized it about 10% of the time in his outing in Everett.
“I was sitting on the couch last night watching Cam Schlitter take down the Red Sox throwing all cutters,” grinned Miller. “So I figured I’d mix some in today.”
The cutter elicited swings and foul balls, although he was able to use it to steal a first-pitch called strike against a lefty. Miller was highly aggressive in the zone in his outing, throwing nine first-pitch strikes to the eleven batters he faced. The Spokane batters, relishing their chance to face a big-league arm, were anxious to swing, helping drive that metric up for Miller, who later joked he was just trying to help Everett break a tie with the big-league club in an organization-wide contest for which pitching staff can throw the most first-pitch strikes.
“Any hitter, any lineup – here, or in Tacoma, or in Seattle – the more that we can be ahead, the better. So even when I’m working on pitches and working different sequences, the first goal is to get ahead and then go from there.”
In addition to watching Schlitter throw his cutter, Miller has been studying different slider grips during his downtime, borrowing one from Bryan Abreu in Houston in an attempt to improve his traditional gyro slider (separate from his sweeper). The retooled grip has cost him a little velocity on the pitch, which frustrates him, but he’s encouraged by the early results on the pitch, something he’s been tinkering with for several years, trying to limit the damage on it when batters do make contact with the pitch.
“[The slider] is a little bit slower than I want – it’s been like, 85, which the sweeper and the curve have been 85 at times. So we’re still kind of messing with it, but the results have been good on it. So it’s like, I don’t want to mess with it too much….I just want it to be a little harder. If the heater is going to be [ninety] five to eight, I think the slider should be 88-89, not 84-85, but we’ll see what happens with it. If it’s 85 and gets good results, I’ll take it.”
As for the heater velocity, after coming out throwing 98 on the stadium radar gun, Miller’s fastball velocity settled into the 95-96 range for the rest of the outing, a mark he was able to hold consistently. Miller was unconcerned about the drop in velocity from the first inning, noting that the facilities at Funko Field don’t allow for him to go through his complete between-innings routine, which involves keeping his arm active with a plyo ball to keep his arm warm and help him maintain his velocity. In that way, Miller might be benefiting even more from his later start to the season, contending with the weather in the Pacific Northwest between inning breaks rather than the consistently warm air in Arizona.
Miller will throw again this Friday for Tacoma, at home facing the A’s affiliate this week, and look to get to four innings or the 60-pitch mark. He’s excited to keep checking off milestones in a rehab journey that’s been challenging at times and anxious to get back to Seattle, but is trying to keep his expectations in check and progress at the appropriate pace.
“It’s like week three of spring training,” said Miller, showing how much he’s grown since the fresh-out-of-college version of himself who was with the AquaSox in 2022.
“I think I got a few more pitches than when I was here in ‘22,” he laughed, when asked about the difference between himself then and now. “My only goal then every start was to try to hit 100 mph, so I usually burned out pretty quick in the beginning. But now I got a few more pitches, a few more ways to attack hitters, a little more mature as a pitcher on the mound. Back then, it was just, we’re gonna throw as many heaters as I can, as hard as I can, and see if they hit it.”
Miller isn’t actively trying to hit 100 anymore, but he’s still coming up with new ways to see if hitters can hit it; something that’s been a hallmark of Miller’s game throughout his young career. Soon, hopefully, he’ll return to a big-league mound and see which of his new wrinkles have paid off.
