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A week before the trade deadline, Miller’s agent told him that a deal likely wouldn’t come to fruition. So, when deadline day rolled around earlier this month, Miller didn’t have reason to believe his time with the Giants was coming to an end.
That is, until he looked at the television in the visitors’ weight room at Globe Life Field and saw that he was reportedly headed to the Boston Red Sox. Still, no one had officially said anything to Miller.
He went out to play catch, but pitching coach Justin Meccage told him he needed to stop. The television report was true; Miller was no longer a Giant.
Miller soon saw that president of baseball operations Buster Posey had tried calling him to deliver the news. Miller, along with minor-league outfielder Carlos Gutierrez, was heading to the Red Sox in exchange for former top prospect Marcelo Mayer .
And honestly? Miller couldn’t blame the Giants for making the deal.
“It definitely caught me off guard,” Miller said. “But it makes sense.
I can see why (they’d be) opportunistic. Someone offers up a guy of that caliber that’s not long removed from being a top guy like that for a reliever, I don’t blame them.
I would probably make that trade too if I were them. When I saw who it was, it kind of made sense.” The trade has certainly worked out so far for Miller, a Stanford alum who is back to playing meaningful baseball for a contender.
Before Sunday’s game at Fenway Park, Miller, in eight appearances, had yet to allow a run for his new team, throwing 8 1/3 scoreless innings with 14 strikeouts to three walks while receiving more leverage opportunities.
On Friday night, Miller helped spoil Rafael Devers’ return to Boston by tossing a scoreless inning with two strikeouts against his former team. With a combination of a turbo sinker and biting slider, Miller had the stuff necessary to become the Giants’ closer at some point this season.
That reality never materialized. Miller recorded the first four saves of his career this season and posted a career-high 31.7 percent strikeout rate at the time of the trade, but he was also walking more than 15 percent of the batters he faced.
Similar to outfielder Heliot Ramos , Miller has three years of team control remaining after this season. Unlike veterans Luis Arraez and Robbie Ray, there wasn’t an urgency to trade Miller ahead of his first year of arbitration.
When the Red Sox offered M ayer, the Giants took advantage of the opportunity to acquire a middle infielder with five years of team control remaining. When asked about his time with the Giants, Miller said he had “nothing but good memories” and appreciated his time in San Francisco.
“I wish, as a team, things could’ve gone better,” said Miller, who had a 3.05 ERA with 154 strikeouts over 130 innings in three seasons as a Giant. “I would have really liked to get back to the playoffs and get back to the way they were consistently doing it 10, 12 years ago.
I tie a lot of my personal growth to there. I think I’ve learned a lot.
“They were a place that gave me an opportunity and showed their faith in me when, at times, it was maybe a little bit rocky, and I was able to smooth some things out. I have nothing but good things to say about playing there.
I love the fans, love everything about the city. I’m going to miss that part a lot, for sure.” This month, Miller has leaned almost exclusively on his sinker and slider while scrapping his changeup and effectively eliminating his four-seam fastball.
While the Red Sox have a reputation of helping pitchers improve, Miller said there hasn’t been an extensive conversati on with Boston’s pitching group. Rather, Miller has just carried over what he was doing well towards the end of his time in San Francisco.
“I want to throw those pitches again at some point, but you can be successful as a two-pitch reliever,” Miller said. “A lot of these guys I’m facing, they haven’t seen me when I’ve just been a sinker-slider guy.
If they have seen me, it was when I was four-seam and changeup. … I keep going back to ever since I started calling my own pitches, there was a very clear line in the sand.” San Francisco, meanwhile, is still waiting for their new acquisition to make his Giants debut.
The team announced on Friday that Mayer, who was rehabbing from a stress reaction in his left forearm, has been dealing with a right foot bone bruise from a prior injury. Mayer had hoped to be healthy enough to play during this series, but his return to Boston will have to wait.
“I think he wanted to play here, but that was more his ambition,” Giants manager Tony Vitello said on Friday. “I don’t think it was ever kind of on the calendar for us.
You don’t ever want to cut anything too short or set your sights too far down the road. In order to make the progression he needed to, I think it was a little unrealistic.”
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