Padres’ Mason Miller Gives Clear Answer on Potentially Transitioning to Starting Pitcher: Exclusive

San Diego Padres closer Mason Miller is currently Major League Baseball's most unhittable pitcher.

Miller has opened the 2026 season with 12.1 consecutive scoreless innings. He has a 33.2 inning scoreless streak dating back to last year, which tied Cla Meredith for the longest in franchise history.

He's given up just two runs in a Padres uniform, both coming in his second appearance with the team on Aug. 5, 2025. This year, he's struck out 27 of the 41 batters he's faced.

While Miller has seamlessly moved into his role as the Padres' closer following the offseason departure of All-Star Robert Suarez, there was some talk this past offseason about him potentially transitioning to a starting pitcher.

Theoretically, wouldn't the Padres want their best pitcher to pitch as much as possible?

In the end, the Padres and Miller decided he was better off as the team's closer, at least for this year.

“I think, just right now, it makes the most sense to stay with that success, stay where I know that I’m going to make an impact on this team," Miller said this spring.

“Having the take of the pitcher himself — what he wants to do, where he feels comfortable — if there was a strong desire for him to start, we probably would have shifted and allowed him to do that,” pitching coach Ruben Niebla added. “But we also understand who we have in Mason Miller as possibly, arguably, the best closer in baseball.”

With that being said, Miller is still under contract for three more years before entering free agency (unless the two sides reach agreement on a long-term contract extension, with Miller said he's interested in).

So, could Miller potentially transition to the rotation in the future?

“I think I’ve been in the gray area of like, I looked at myself as a starter for so long, for so much of my baseball life," Miller said to Padres On SI. "But with the success I’ve had recently and with Suarez ultimately leaving this past year, I kind of felt like that was the right path for me right now.

"The success is how I feel like I’m helping the team the most."

It's hard to argue with that, as the Padres essentially need to get 24 outs before handing the ball to Miller to close things out.

Would Miller still be open to starting in the future, though?

“Starting, in a vacuum, if you could say I’m going to pitch 180 innings, I’m sure that would help the team a lot. But there’s no guarantees as to how I would do with that right now," Miller said.

"So personally, taking on that risk doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But also, with how I’m gonna be able to help the team, I felt like I was best served to step into the late-inning role and continue doing what I’ve been having a lot of success with.”

There are few better things in baseball right now than watching Miller enter a game in the ninth inning. Good news for Padres fans: that's not going anywhere any time soon.

Mason Miller's new closer entrance in San Diego is pretty epic pic.twitter.com/PZwwlHqcCm
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) March 29, 2026

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