Is Padres closer Mason Miller the most unhittable pitcher who ever lived?

Has it hit you yet what we’re watching? Has it sunk in what is happening when Mason Miller takes the mound to finish off another thank-you-and-drive-home-safely baseball game in San Diego?

We are watching the most unhittable pitcher who ever lived. Period.

There. I said it. And now I’m here to prove it.

I’ve looked at everyone who ever had a case to hold that title: Nolan Ryan … Aroldis Chapman … Josh Hader … Edwin Díaz … Craig Kimbrel … Mariano Rivera … Eric Gagne … Pedro Martínez … Randy Johnson … Jacob deGrom … Sandy Koufax … Walter Johnson … and on and on.

I’ve talked to two of the greatest closers of modern times, Trevor Hoffman and Billy Wagner.

I’ve dug deep into every number that could shape this argument.

It has all pointed me right back to the same place: The Padres’ closer is the most unhittable pitcher who ever lived. Fortunately, I had no trouble finding two Hall of Fame closers who were right there with me.

“I don’t think that’s even an opinion,” said Wagner, a man who owns a plaque in Cooperstown because he should have a place in this debate. “I think until somebody says, ‘I can prove you wrong,’ the stats say you’re right.”

“I don’t think the numbers are lying,” said Hoffman, who must have been pretty good since MLB’s best National League reliever trophy (the Trevor Hoffman Award) is named after him. “What was that guy’s name, Sidd Finch — the fictitious reliever (that Sports Illustrated once made up) who threw, like, 110 (mph)? That was fiction, but Mason’s real. And outside of Sidd Finch, I think Mason might be the most unhittable pitcher ever.”

So there you go. Outside of a not-even-real dude who Sports Illustrated once slapped on its magazine cover as an April Fools joke in 1985, this is not even a contest. Really.

First off, it is great to have two Hall of Famers on your side when you’re making pronouncements like this. Otherwise, you people might be tempted to dash off a bunch of nasty remarks in the comments section. Glad we headed that off (ha ha).

But second, I honestly am prepared to prove this theory. It isn’t even that hard. Just check out these numbers for yourself.

I started with Miller’s appearance last Aug. 6, the day after his final run allowed last year — and kept counting until he finally gave up another run four days ago. Now get a whiff of Miller’s Sidd Finch-ian numbers in between. Unlike Sports Illustrated, I didn’t make any of these up:

• Opposing hitters went 7-for-127 (.055), with 87 strikeouts

• Let’s repeat that: 87 strikeouts … and … 7 hits

• He faced 141 hitters. Not one of them scored.

• 39 straight games with zero extra-base hits allowed

• 39 straight games without ever allowing more than one hit

“Ridiculous,” Hoffman said, literally laughing out loud when I read him those numbers. “I’d be hard-pressed to see someone do that with a Wiffle Ball.”

He couldn’t be more right. Now here’s a more itemized breakdown, just so you can get a better look at Miller’s relentless unhittability across more than four months of baseball:

PERIODGAMESIPKABH

2026 season*

13

13 1/3

27

42

3

2025 postseason

2

2 2/3

8

8

0

WBC

4

4 1/3

10

12

0

Sept. 2025

11

12 1/3

26

37

1

Aug. 2025**

9

9

16

28

3

TOTALS

39

41 2/3

87

127

7

(*through April 25)
(**starting Aug. 6)

“It’s just dominance,” said Hoffman, who sees it all up close in his work with the Padres as a senior advisor for baseball operations. “People will say: It’s not that long. Well, in a reliever’s life, that’s a really long time — and that’s a lot of dominance.”

So how dominant — wait, make that how historically dominant — was it? It was fun just trying to answer that question.

77 strikeouts/7 hits

Mason Miller allowed no extra-base hits to the 127 batters he faced during his 35 scoreless appearances in a row. (Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)

If you were paying attention earlier, you know we dropped a slightly different ratio — 87 strikeouts to seven hits. Don’t worry. We weren’t messing with you.

It just made sense, in the name of better research, to compare apples with apples. So we removed Miller’s World Baseball Classic numbers. That left us with 77 to seven — his ratio for the regular season plus postseason in that same span.

Baseball Reference’s Kenny Jackelen then took those numbers and stacked them up against all the scoreless appearance streaks in history that spanned the regular season and postseason — and included at least 120 batters faced.

It turned into a cool list with some unexpected names. But in the end, was Miller still the most unhittable bullpen monster of them all?

Yes.

Between the regular season and postseason, Miller just ripped off 35 scoreless appearances in a row. Among pitchers who faced at least 120 hitters while putting up all those zeroes, only two streaks have ever been longer.

PITCHERYEAR(S)GBFHKXBH

Craig Kimbrel

2011

38

137

14

67

0

Mariano Rivera

1999*

36

152

23

37

2

Mason Miller

2025-26*

35

127

7

77

0

(*includes postseason)
(Source: Kenny Jackelen, Baseball Reference)

On one hand, Kimbrel and Rivera had longer scoreless streaks and faced more hitters during their streaks. On the other hand, check out the hits and strikeout columns.

PITCHEROPP AVGK%

Miller

.063

60.6%

Kimbrel

.112

48.9%

Rivera

.159

24.3%

So if the question on the table was Who’s the most unhittable? I don’t know how there’s an argument for anyone besides Miller. And that’s with all due respect to the great Mariano and the 2011 monster version of Kimbrel.

The Zero/Uno Club

All right, let’s try this another way. Miller just ripped through 35 consecutive trips to the mound without allowing any extra-base hits or more than one hit in any outing. That seemed like a lot of trips.

Spoiler alert: It’s definitely a lot.

So Jackelen also dug up the longest streaks in history by pitchers allowing no extra-base hits and no more than one hit. Not surprisingly, nearly the entire list is made up of situational left-handers who became LOOGY legends before the three-batter-minimum rule was adopted in 2020.

There was one exception. Guess who?

Here are the five longest streaks on that leaderboard:

PITCHERYEAR(S)GBFHK

Randy Choate*

2013-14

51

106

15

24

Mason Miller

2025-26

35

127

7

77

Sean Marshall*

2012-13

32

87

8

25

George Sherrill*

2006

32

77

9

21

Mike Myers*

2004

31

65

9

13

(*left-handed)
(Source: Kenny Jackelen, Baseball Reference)

Nobody, except possibly Jerry Blevins, loves (and misses) those LOOGY legends more than I do. But none of their streaks of zero heroism remotely compares with the untouchability of Miller’s streak. Heck, the four left-handers on the above list barely had more strikeouts combined (83) than Miller had by himself.

So once again, Miller stands as the king of unhittability.

Miller vs. Chapman

For my next project, I tried stacking up Miller’s peak against the best of the other bullpen dominators.

You’ve already seen Kimbrel. So let’s line up Miller versus what I think was the most overpowering 30-game stretch of Aroldis Chapman’s career.

PITCHERYEAR(S)GBFHKXBH

Miller

2025-26

35

127

7

77

0

Chapman

2014

30

108

8

55

1

Pretty close! And of course it is, because young Aroldis Chapman wasn’t just a beast. He was King Kong. But was he really more unhittable than Mason Miller? Let’s see

PITCHEROPP AVGK%

Miller

.063

60.6%

Chapman

.090

50.9%

I think we have our answer. Sorry! He’s out.

Miller vs. Hader

Up next, it’s Josh Hader. And Peak Hader was also quite a thing to behold. But let’s see how his best stretch compares with Miller’s.

PITCHERYEAR(S)GBFHK XBH

Miller

2025-26

35

127

7

77

0

Hader

2019

30

144

13

77

10

Not surprisingly, Hader’s strikeout rate was as close as any other closer got to Miller (53.5 percent for Hader, 60.6 percent for Miller). But check that XBH column. Nearly every time Hader gave up a hit, it was a gapper or a homer. So does that put Miller’s zero extra-base hits in better perspective? Correct answer: Yes!

Miller vs. Díaz

All right, let’s invite Edwin Díaz to this party. He provided some mind-blowing stretches of greatness to choose from. But I’m going with this 30-appearance stretch for Díaz, with the 2022 Mets, as his best.

PITCHERYEAR(S)GBFHKXBH

Miller

2025-26

35

127

7

77

0

Díaz

2022

30

112

14

63

1

Spectacular? Absolutely. Miller-esque? I’m not seeing it.

So that takes care of all the closest contenders. But I looked at just about everybody. So I could keep rolling these out if you’d like. Pick any great reliever you’ve ever watched. I’ll never dispute their greatness. But they’ve never done this. Trust me. So what about …

Miller vs. Hoffman and Wagner

All right, let’s get to the Hall of Famers. We’ve already done the Miller-versus-Mariano portion of these festivities. So what about the two Cooperstown relievers who have spent time in this column telling me how much better Miller is than they were.

Let’s start with Hoffman. In 2007, he ran off a 32-appearance stretch that was vintage Trevor Hoffman: One earned run … only 14 hits to 112 hitters … tons of soft contact … just six extra-base hits. But there was also this:

His strikeout total over that whole stretch: only 19 — for a K rate of 17.0 percent … just slightly below Miller’s 60.6 percent.

“I think the only thing we could compare,” Hoffman said, laughing, “is that we both pitched at the back end of ball games, and we wore the San Diego Padres’ jersey. There’s really nothing else I can look back on my career and compare to what he’s doing and where he’s at.”

Is it OK if I toss in here that Hoffman saved 601 games in the big leagues — so if Miller saves another 500, he’d still be 41 away from catching him! Just a reminder that greatness and modesty can go hand in hand. But once he’d stopped waving his white flag, Hoffman did say: “I’m glad you talked to Billy, because Billy had that kind of punchout-type stuff where he could relate to this.”

Say, I’m glad he mentioned that. When Wagner retired, he ranked No. 1 among all left-handers in the live-ball era (since 1920) in opponent average (.187), WHIP (0.998) and strikeout rate (11.92 per nine innings). That seems good. But it wasn’t good enough to stop us from having this surreal exchange about Miller.

“How would you compare yourself with him? I asked Wagner.

He replied: “I don’t think there is a comparison, honestly, because I think what he’s doing has just not been done. Not to this rate of just total domination.”

Well, Wagner didn’t lack for stretches of domination, either. In fact, he had so many of those stretches, it was hard to pick one. I went with this 32-appearance stretch early in the 1998 season:

No team would look at 52 strikeouts/20 hits/3 XBH, over a half-season of closing brilliance, and say: What’s the big whoop about that? But when Wagner stacked up that stretch — or similar runs of back-end dominance in 1999, 2002 and 2004 — against the Mason Miller Show, even he kept concluding he must not have been so great after all.

“I don’t know how to put this into perspective,” Wagner said. “But if you’re sitting there and trying to evaluate me and Trevor and Mariano and put us all in that box … I just think he’s set himself apart by what his numbers are telling everybody.”

All right, that’s what he’s thinking. But I bet I know what you’re thinking. So …

Let’s not forget that … 

Mariano Rivera, the greatest of all time. (Nick Laham / Getty Images)

The test of time hasn’t been part of this discussion — yet. So let’s go there. Wagner was a dominator for 16 seasons. Hoffman saved 40 games or more nine times in 18 consistently excellent seasons. And then there’s the greatest closer who ever threw a baseball.

Mariano was The Best Ever for 19 special seasons — and even more importantly, he was The Best October Closer Ever in 16 of them. So let’s see Mason Miller try to live up to that.

“You have to do it for a long time, but I also think you have to do it in the postseason, like what Mo did,” Hoffman said of Rivera. “Mo’s dominance in the postseason — along with his longevity and his success in the regular season, and doing it in October under the brightest lights — I think that’s where you’ve kind of got to be careful on some of these comparisons.

“It’s great to have longevity. It’s great to be consistent. And it’s great to stay in the spotlight for a long time. But then to be able to do it in the postseason and be around a team that’s built for that and have success, that’s when you start to take on a different status.”

Couldn’t agree more. So we’re not here to pretend that the current closer for the Padres is anywhere near that status. He’s a guy who has faced exactly nine hitters in October in his life. So he has another 500 to go before we start comparing him to Mariano. On the other hand …

You know those nine hitters who Miller has faced in the postseason? He struck out eight of them.

So we don’t know yet where Mason Miller is going. But if it looks anything like this, whew. We might all be in for a show unlike anything we’ve ever witnessed.

“Is he going to pull off 10 seasons where he’s able to do these kinds of numbers?” Wagner wondered. “Only time will tell. But he’s — what, three years in? — and he’s as dominating a pitcher as there ever has been in the whole history of the game.

“You’re talking about some of the greatest (relief pitchers) of all time, sitting here watching these games,” Wagner said, with an awestruck chuckle. “And everybody’s going: ‘Man, this is just unbelievable.’”