Hard-throwing Bethel Park alum debuts with Oakland A’s
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When he accepted an internship with AHN as a college sophomore, Mason Miller had to be thinking he was taking the first significant step to defining a career that would help shape a lifelong occupation.
Miller, a Bethel Park alumnus, was right — but not remotely in the way anyone could have imagined.
Five years to the day from submitting a labwork sample that changed the trajectory of his life, Miller arrived in Oakland, Calif., preparing to make his major-league debut.
“It’s been a crazy journey, for sure,” Miller said by phone last week from an MLB clubhouse, “one that few have probably traveled. So I feel blessed to be here.
“Five years ago, I wasn’t thinking I’d be here.”
Who could have? Five years ago, by his own admission, Miller was a struggling Division III pitcher. But a fateful run of blood-sugar numbers April 18, 2018, led to a pivot that turned Miller into one of the majors’ most electric and hyped pitching prospects. He made his MLB debut April 19.
In April 2018, the 6-foot-5 Miller weighed maybe 160 pounds and had a fastball for Waynesburg that topped out around 86 mph.
Today, Miller is a 200-pound Oakland Athletics starter whose fastball through two starts has an average velocity (99.0 mph) that ranks in the 97th percentile of all MLB pitchers.
“It’s just such a cool experience watching a kid you knew on TV, and he’s pitching to Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, striking out Cody Bellinger,” said former Bethel Park coach Tony Fisher.
“The whole thing, it’s just surreal.”
102 MPH ????
Mason Miller is throwing GAS in his MLB debut ⛽️
(via @Athletics)pic.twitter.com/d7bN4xnVHl
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) April 19, 2023
It might not have happened if not for a Type 1 juvenile diabetes diagnosis that came via a submitted urine sample associated with his internship.
While Miller was aware he was coming up on five years since his diagnosis, it wasn’t top of mind on the day he was summoned from Triple-A to join the A’s.
“After that sinks in, I was blown away just by the perspective of everything that has happened in the past five years,” Miller said. “For it to come full circle and make my big-league debut in such a short period in relation to my diagnosis was definitely surreal.”
When Miller arrived on campus at Waynesburg, then-Yellow Jackets pitching coach Perry Cunningham saw a talented young freshman.
“You certainly felt like there was an opportunity,” Cunningham said, “for him to develop into something special in our conference.”
But two seasons into his college career, Miller had an ERA north of 7.00 and batting-average-against of more than .300.
“I was getting on him, ‘Are you committed to the weight room? Are you committed to eating healthy? It doesn’t look like from the outside that there is the commitment we need,’ ” Cunningham said.
“He was always like, ‘Coach, you can ask my teammates. I am doing everything I need to do.’ ”
Still, Miller couldn’t put on weight or add strength. He kept tiring after 3-4 innings.
“At that point in my career I knew something was up with me — I wasn’t sure what — because I was doing everything right,” Miller said. “I was lifting, I was eating, I was trying to better myself physically off the field because my performance hadn’t been great, which bothered me. I wanted to do well, but at that point it was about doing well at my school. It wasn’t about anything past that.”
It all made sense after the diabetes diagnosis. Armed with appropriate tools and diet to manage the disease, Miller’s body transformation followed.
Then came the results on the mound. He had a 1.86 ERA and 97 strikeouts in 68 innings as a junior. His fastball reached the mid-90s. MLB teams began seriously scouting him.
Miller was off to a good start during a Waynesburg trip to Florida trip his senior year … and then covid-19 struck.
“Before we had our team meeting we brought in him in our office and basically said ‘Look, the NCAA shut down spring sports; they’re going to give everybody another year (of eligibility),” Cunningham said. “But you have no business coming back because you have nothing left to prove at the D-III level.”
When MLB modified and shortened its draft, it wasn’t the best timing to turn pro. So, Miller went to Gardner-Webb, a Big South school in South Carolina.
After going 8-1 with 122 strikeouts in 93 Division I innings, Miller was no longer a secret. Soon after joining Oakland as a 2021 third-round pick, Miller topped 100 mph. He needed only 11 minor-league appearances before the A’s had seen enough to promote him to “the show.”
The only thing faster than Miller’s ascension is the speed of his pitches — 15 he threw in his MLB debut surpassed 100 mph. One touched 102.5.
“And he does it so effortlessly,” Fisher said. “To be able to repeat those mechanics and throw 100 mph? So smooth.”
Mason Miller, K'ing Trout & Ohtani in the 2nd. pic.twitter.com/Bf27M8GWAi
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 26, 2023
Through two MLB starts, Miller has as many strikeouts (11) as runners allowed over 8 2/3 innings, despite facing two of the majors’ top-scoring teams.
“I mean, you think about this kid,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said after Miller’s first start, “where he’s come from. The journey — the short journey, really, in terms of innings in the minors — to come here and face a good lineup, a good team … I thought Mason did an unbelievable job.”
Miller’s next start is scheduled for Tuesday.