One of the biggest moves of the 2025 MLB trade deadline was the San Diego Padres landing Mason Miller from the Athletics. Miller demonstrated why on Wednesday.
On his ninth pitch against the Chicago Cubs in Game 2 of their wild-card series, Miller fired a fastball to strike out Carson Kelly. The pitch was clocked by Statcast at 104.5 mph.
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That’s not only the fastest pitcher Miller, one of the hardest-throwing pitchers in the history of baseball, has thrown in his career, it’s also the fastest pitch the postseason has seen since pitch tracking began in 2008, per MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.
That pitch was one part of an overwhelming performance from Miller, who struck out five straight batters before hitting his sixth with a pitch. Per Baseball Savant, he averaged 103 mph on 11 fastballs. Batters swung 10 times against him and whiffed six times, with four foul balls.
And that’s a day after Miller entered Game 1 against the Cubs and struck out all three batters he faced. His eight straight batters struck out ties Josh Hader for the longest streak in postseason history according to Langs.
Overall, the Padres bullpen is what carried the team to a 3-0 Game 2 win. Starting pitcher Dylan Cease looked good until he allowed a couple baserunners in the fourth inning, at which point Padres manager Mike Shildt called in reliever Adrian Morejon.
Morejon, Miller and closer Robert Suarez proceeded to post 5 1/3 combined scoreless innings with six strikeouts and only one hit allowed. The dominance was hardly surprising; the Padres bullpen easily led MLB with a 3.06 ERA in 2025. The distance between them and No. 2 (the Boston Red Sox at 3.41) was bigger than the difference between No. 2 and No. 10.
The Padres traded for Miller to reinforce what was already a strength and they certainly paid dearly for it, sending top 5 prospect Leo De Vries to the Athletics. Trading prospects of De Vries’ caliber is rare in today’s game, to trade one for a reliever is almost unheard of.
Now the question is if the bullpen will be able to hold up in Game 3 despite Miller and Morejon both throwing on Tuesday and Wednesday, with multiple innings in Game 2.
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