Seattle Mariners Starting Pitcher Bryce Miller Dishes on Development of Pitch-Mix
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When Bryce Miller was drafted in the fourth round of the 2021 MLB Draft, few people anticipated him to become the pitcher he is today.
Miller had a two-pitch mix coming out of Texas A&M. And even saying he had two pitches was almost a stretch considering how frequently he threw his fastball.
Since then, Miller has developed one of the widest arsenals on the Mariners starting rotation, which has an argument as the best in baseball.
With this new repertoire, Miller had a breakout season in 2024. He posted a 2.94 ERA and struck out 171 batters in 180.1 innings pitched across 31 starts.
Bryce Miller, Filthy 84mph Knuckle Curve. 😷 pic.twitter.com/MA9XmGAAhM
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) February 27, 2025
The third-year Seattle pitcher spoke with MLB Network on Saturday and discussed his process in expanding his arsenal, which helped lead to his stellar second half of 2024.
"Two-pitch, mainly one pitch (in college). There's a lot of fastballs, fastball-slider, but probably 75% heater in college. ... Yeah, I got seven (pitches) now. Really, once I got into pro ball, I dove into the analytics. It was easy for me to see a shape and chase it. That was kind of my goal, get up and develop pitches and keep the hitters off the heater. And I think as the year went on last year I was able to do that. ... I think it was a combo. I added a cutter, I added a curveball. And I just executed better, I think (in my last 14 starts). I learned a lot after my rookie year. The second half of (2023) was kind of a struggle for me to stay up and keep going. I think I was getting tired. And going into last year, that was one of my main focuses, was to finish strong. And the second half of the year, that was my better half of the year. So I was very happy with that."
Bryce Miller explains how he went from a two-pitch guy in college to a 7-pitch guy and key cog in the @Mariners elite rotation 👀 pic.twitter.com/F4zgc0s0pi
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) March 2, 2025
Miller expanded the focus on his cutter this offseason. The pitch is up to the upper-80 mile an hour range with roughly 14 inches of vertical drop and seven inches of horizontal break.
Miller was Seattle's best pitcher in the second half of last season from a statistical standpoint. And it will be interesting to see what he has for an encore in 2025.
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