From DIII to throwing 103, Mason Miller's journey a wild ride

NEW YORK -- Given how this season has gone, you'd have thought that Mason Miller was always destined to be a closer, a fireballer striking fear into his opponents' hearts from the moment he begins warming up in the bullpen.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Converted to relief this year to protect his health -- he was on the injured list last year with a UCL sprain -- Miller has quickly taken to his new role. His fastball has been unleashed, ticking up an additional 2.5 mph from his velocity as a rookie starter last season, while his slider has befuddled batters to a .105 batting average.

"It's an adjustment," Miller said about moving to the closer's role, while visiting the MLB studios recently. Dressed casually in a brown suede jacket and khaki pants on the day we spoke, Miller displayed a calmness and easy affability -- two things that are probably good to have when entering tense ninth innings.

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"I think I made the transition fairly easily," Miller said. "That's a testament to our group and the coaches who are putting me in positions to succeed and giving me enough time to adjust to this role. I think I've taken to it pretty well. I enjoy pitching in those moments late in the game."

Armed with the hardest fastball in the Major Leagues, Miller admits that, yeah, he finds himself sneaking peeks at the radar -- and calls out any pitcher who claims they don't.

"Yeah, I sneak a couple looks for sure," Miller said with a laugh. "Usually, it doesn't end up being my best one. When I come in [to the clubhouse], somebody will let me know. Or somebody will text me and obviously we have video after the game. I think everybody that says they don't [check the radar gun] is lying a little bit. Everybody likes to take a little look."

Now 8-for-8 in save opportunities with an unreal 18.9 strikeouts per nine innings, the attention on the young pitcher reached a new height when Miller closed out a win against the Yankees by fanning Anthony Volpe, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge on three 100-plus mph offerings last week.

"I'd say until this trip it's been easy to stay pretty grounded," Miller said with a smile. "But there's definitely a different stage [in New York] and we've noticed that for sure."

Many players spend years dreaming of this opportunity, but for Miller, that's what it always seemed to be: A dream. The right-hander was a finance major at Division III Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania, fully expecting that a normal day job was waiting for him after he graduated from school. A 7.03 ERA his freshman year followed by a 7.16 mark as a sophomore did little to dissuade him of that notion.

"Baseball was always something I loved, something I enjoyed," Miller said. "Coming out of high school, that wasn't something that I really saw myself playing past college. I went to Waynesburg knowing I would play there my freshman year, and that was what was important: Just being on the field, doing what I love. School was first, for sure. I was planning on a job after college -- I wasn't planning on a job like this."

It was only after being diagnosed with Type 1 juvenile diabetes after the 2018 season that everything changed. Able to put on weight after years of struggling, Miller's velocity quickly ticked up and his performance came with it.

"I don't think I could have convinced myself or anybody of the journey that it's been over the past five or six years," Miller said. "It's been life-changing for sure. Obviously, I've had my fair share of change in my life, then obviously everybody dealt with [the pandemic] in 2020. I just feel super blessed to be in this seat now."

A breakout 2019 season in which Miller posted a 1.86 ERA with 97 strikeouts in 67 2/3 innings soon followed. He made two starts in his senior year and scouts -- a rare sighting at that level -- began taking in Waynesburg's games.

"I had a lot of scouts come out to those games, which for DIII games, was pretty flooring for just about everybody there. It was nothing that any of us had ever seen," Miller said. "So at that point, I was taken aback. I thought I might actually have a chance."

Then Covid hit, canceling the rest of the college baseball season and turning the MLB Draft into a short five-round affair. With so few picks, no team was willing to use one on a guy pitching at that level of college ball.

Gifted with an extra year of eligibility, Miller transferred to Division I Gardner-Webb for his fifth season. While that was enough to get picked by the A's in the third round of the 2021 Draft, he wasn't exactly thrilled to hang out in college for another year.

"[Playing at Gardner-Webb] gave me the platform I needed to showcase the skills that I had. That's all I could ask for. But yeah, a fifth year of school was me going all in on baseball. I was good after four years," Miller joked.

Regardless of the situation now, Miller is sure to remember his roots. After all, his old teammates won't let him forget it. The group chats and texts from friends feature "a lot of joking, for sure." They'll highlight where Miller once was -- pitching on small fields in front of a couple dozen people as a hobby -- to today, when he's closing out games by striking out the best players the Major Leagues have to offer.

"My buddy had a layover in New York yesterday and he sent me a picture from his flight of the stadium. He's like, 'I was kinda there today,'" Miller said. "There's other jokes like, 'Was it a bigger moment at Yankee Stadium or pitching against Bethany in 2019?'"