{"id":8934,"date":"2025-07-20T17:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T17:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/8934\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T17:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T17:35:07","slug":"as-plan-to-keep-mason-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/8934\/","title":{"rendered":"A’s Plan To Keep Mason Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletics are lined up to be sellers at the deadline, but their July 31 moves won\u2019t extend to a certain long-term closer.\u00a0 Mason Miller<\/a> appears to be more or less untouchable, as USA Today\u2019s Bob Nightengale<\/a> writes that the A\u2019s are telling interested teams that the reliever isn\u2019t available in trade talks.<\/p>\n

While things could conceivably change if a particular club makes an outsized offer, it makes sense that the A\u2019s have no interest in moving Miller, who is under team control through the 2029 season.\u00a0 The right-hander has yet to even reach salary arbitration, though he\u2019ll hit that milestone a year early since Miller is on pace to easily qualify for Super Two status.\u00a0 This means he\u2019ll gain four years of arbitration eligibility instead of the usual three.<\/p>\n

Since traditional counting statistics are weighed more heavily in arbitration cases than more advanced analytics, a closer who racks up big save totals can put himself in line for some increasingly hefty paydays through the arb process.\u00a0 As such, Miller stands to cash in given that that he already posted 47 saves (out of 53 chances) over his three MLB seasons.\u00a0 While this rising price tag might make the Athletics more open to dealing Miller at some point during his arbitration years, there isn\u2019t any urgency for the A\u2019s to make a move just yet, even if he has been whispered in trade speculation for over a year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[Related: Athletics Trade Deadline Outlook<\/a>, for MLBTR Front Office subscribers]<\/p>\n

After making his big league debut in 2023, Miller was installed as the Athletics\u2019 closer at the start of the 2024 campaign and he essentially hasn\u2019t looked back.\u00a0 The righty has a 3.22 ERA and a stunning 37.5% strikeout rate over 134 career innings, with an average fastball velocity of 100.2mph.\u00a0 That high-octane fastball is paired with an 87.2mph slider that has been one of the more effective pitchers in baseball over the last two seasons.\u00a0 Control is a question mark, as Miller\u2019s below-average walk rate in 2024 has sunk to a troubling 12% in 2025.<\/p>\n

Between this control issue and the general volatility of relief pitching, an argument can be made that the A\u2019s would be well served to sell high on Miller while he is at peak trade value.\u00a0 Miller dealt with some early-career injuries that necessitated his move from starting pitching to the bullpen in the first place, so this health history is another reason the front office could reasonably consider a trade at some point.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, the Athletics have shown indications that they\u2019re ready to end their rebuild, even if their results in 2025 have been disappointing.\u00a0 The club locked up Lawrence Butler<\/a> and Brent Rooker<\/a> to long-term extensions this past spring, and signed Luis Severino<\/a> to a team-record $67MM free agent deal this past offseason.\u00a0 This counts as a massive spending splurge by the Athletics\u2019 traditionally low-spending standards, though it appears as though their extension discussions didn\u2019t extend to Miller, who said in mid-March<\/a> that the club had yet to broach the subject of a long-term extension.\u00a0 Some sort of multi-year agreement might be a wise move for the A\u2019s to gain some cost certainty through Miller\u2019s arbitration years, even if the club might be hesitate about a commitment beyond the 2029 campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletics are lined up to be sellers at the deadline, but their July 31 moves won\u2019t extend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,10682,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-8934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mason-miller","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}