Mason Miller picks up 28th save against Rockies

Passan notes that the Brewers are involved in the bidding for Tarik Skubal and are certainly looking to add starting pitching depth, but they could pivot to add Miller and trust that young starters like Shane Drohan, Robert Gasser, and/or Brandon Sproat can pitch 4-5 innings before turning the game over to a dominant bullpen.

Miller was summoned in the top of the ninth with the game tied against the Rockies. He retired all three batters on swinging strikes, punching out the side before the Padres walked it off in the bottom of the frame to give Miller the win. It was his third win of the season to go with 27 saves, a 0.81 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, and an 83/15 K/BB ratio across 44 2/3 innings.

Miller’s save was his 27th of the season. He retired the side in order in a perfect ninth inning that was capped off by a strikeout of Joe Mack to end the game. Miller has an 0.82 ERA and is perfect on save opportunities this season.

This guy is simply different. It took him just 11 pitches to sit the Marlins down here. Seven of those 11 were fastballs and the slowest of which was 100.6 mph. That’s now 26 saves on the season without a single blown opportunity and if he really is on the trade block, his value just keeps going up.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the Brewers will get either player — or that either player will be traded at all — but it’s a notable shift from Milwaukee’s usual deadline strategy. “I’ve been on the phone a lot,” Brewers president of baseball told McCalvy. “We’re definitely active.” The Brewers are clearly looking to snag a bye in the National League playoffs. Skubal’s availability seems to come and go as the Tigers win and lose games — it sounds like if a Skubal deal does come it’ll be one that happens on August 3, the actual day of the deadline.

Miller is one of the best closers in baseball and has three more years of team control, so the Padres will not force a trade, but moving Miller would enable them to attach Xander Bogaert’s out-sized salary, which Passan notes would interest the Padres. That puts San Diego “in a position to dangle the best reliever in baseball and see what kind of bites they get.”

The context of this quote is the Padres attaching Bogaerts to closer Mason Miller being a “proposition too beneficial to pass up” for San Diego should they sell at the trade deadline. Bogaerts, 34 in December, is hitting just .224/.317/.331 this season and has slugged under .400 in each of his three years with the Padres so far. It’s probably far-fetched to believe Bogaerts has any positive trade value at this point, but if the Padres really want to move on from him, attaching Miller might be the way to do it.

There’s little doubt that Miller will be the choice in the ninth on Tuesday in the NL All-Star squad has a lead. Miller enters the break as the NL saves leader, with one more than Jhoan Duran and Riley O’Brien. He’s three behind Cade Smith for the major league lead.

Miller did put the tying run on base, but he was able to work around that knock without trouble while fanning a pair. It’s been nothing short of a dominant first half for the 27-year-old; one that has seen him save 24 games with a sparking 0.93 ERA. In a different era, Miller would likely be in the Cy Young conversation.

Miller was summoned in the ninth inning with a three-run lead to close out the game against the D-backs. He worked a clean frame on 14 pitches, striking out two batters to secure the win for the Padres and his 23rd save of the season.