Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Three years ago, four friends celebrated the end of their first season as professional baseball players by getting together for a golf trip to Port Charlotte, Fla.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re actually doing that this winter, too,\u201d Aidan Miller said. \u201cIt\u2019ll be fun to reunite with those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Imagine the new stories they could tell.<\/p>\n
Colt Emerson, a 21-year-old shortstop, got called up by the Mariners in May and homered for his first major-league hit. Bryce Eldridge, a 21-year-old Giants first baseman, banged 17 homers, including a walk-off grand slam in June. Kevin McGonigle, a 22-year-old shortstop from Delaware County<\/a>, signed a $150 million contract with the Tigers in April, came home to play in the All-Star Game<\/a> in July, and is the presumptive American League Rookie of the Year after a 7.1-WAR season.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Dave Dombrowski didn\u2019t have an \u2018elite\u2019 season. And turning it around in 2027 won\u2019t be easy.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n And Miller? The 22-year-old Phillies<\/a> top prospect had a decidedly different 2026. Back pain sidelined him in spring training, and a complex diagnosis and monthslong recovery caused him to miss nearly the entire season, clouding his promising career.<\/p>\n But he returned to the field last month<\/a>, won an Eastern League championship with double-A Reading, and is off to a blazing \u2014 and most importantly, healthy \u2014 start in the Arizona Fall League. <\/p>\n Miller\u2019s tale might still have a happy ending.<\/p>\n For the Phillies, it\u2019s practically an imperative.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not gonna put it on his back,\u201d president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski<\/a> said Thursday, pun most definitely unintended, \u201cbut we think Aidan Miller is a really, really good player. You see all the young players that jumped into playing this year and the years they had. Aidan Miller, when healthy, he\u2019s as good as any of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, a bumper crop of 23-and-under infielders burst onto the scene this season. The rookie class included McGonigle, JJ Wetherholt (Cardinals), Konnor Griffin (Pirates), Travis Bazzana (Guardians), A.J. Ewing (Mets), Eldridge, Sal Stewart (Reds), Cooper Pratt (Brewers), Emerson, and George Lombard Jr. (Yankees), some of whom have the look of franchise cornerstones.<\/p>\n The Phillies planned for Miller to make a similar impact, maybe not on opening day but certainly later in the season. They even assigned him a spring-training locker between Bryce Harper<\/a> and J.T. Realmuto<\/a>, and down the row from Trea Turner<\/a> and Kyle Schwarber<\/a>, to make him comfortable around the team\u2019s stars.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he would\u2019ve played for us in \u201926,\u201d Dombrowski said, \u201cif, unfortunately, his back wasn\u2019t in that situation.\u201d<\/p>\n Before a game Thursday in Arizona, Miller appeared as a guest on The Inquirer\u2019s Phillies Extra podcast<\/a> and said his back feels \u201cas close to 100% as I can get.\u201d He insisted his condition is \u201cnot even a thought anymore\u201d and outlined the training program that is designed to keep it that way.<\/p>\n Miller traced the origin of the back problem to the final week of last season and credited the Tampa branch of Tom Brady\u2019s chain of \u201cTB12\u2033 training and recovery centers for helping to identify and treat it.<\/p>\n And although he conceded that the misery of not being able to play was compounded by his friends\u2019 successes, Miller also believes that the ordeal gave him a different appreciation for the game.<\/p>\n \u201cI was super happy for them, but obviously, yeah, a little frustrated like, \u2018Hey, that also could be me up there,\u2019\u201d Miller said. \u201cBut it\u2019s honestly changed my whole outlook on baseball. I think in the past I was so worried about all my stats and how\u2019s our team doing \u2014 we\u2019ve lost three in a row, things like that. It\u2019s just like, man, it\u2019s a blessing to be playing baseball every single day.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: The Phillies will keep Trea Turner at shortstop for now: \u2018He knows he has to be better\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe fact that I get to do this as a job is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n Dombrowski\u2019s job is to extend the Phillies\u2019 competitive window with a core of thirtysomething stars and $239.25 million in luxury tax commitments for 2027. He expressed gratitude for ownership\u2019s largesse, but also interjected reality, especially amid uncertainty over the financial rules whenever baseball emerges from a labor battle over a new collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of high-salary guys at this point, so I think you have to figure out which way you go,\u201d Dombrowski said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it necessarily means signing all high-salary guys, but I do think we have the flexibility. \u2026 The reality is that, \u2018Hey, it\u2019s up to me. I\u2019ve created the situation, right?\u2019”<\/p>\n How much better would that situation be if Miller is the Phillies\u2019 version of McGonigle?<\/p>\n Back to the future <\/p>\n With a powerful right-handed swing, the athleticism to play shortstop, and instincts on the bases, Miller is cut from central casting as a five-tool prospect.<\/p>\n But one month into the season, he was casting lines in Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n \u201cI got really big into fishing,\u201d Miller said. \u201cEvery time a guy would come down to rehab, I hated it for him, but it was nice because I had a new fishing buddy. [Triple-A infielder] Keaton Anthony was down for a bit, and we\u2019d go out and fish for like eight hours every day, just to get our mind off the grind of rehab.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller\u2019s back began to flare up near the end of the 2025 season. He described a \u201ctight and tense\u201d sensation when he swung a bat. And the more he swung, the worse it got. With two games left in the triple-A season, he met with the athletic trainers.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: The big offseason questions facing the Phillies: Core\u2019s future, fixing the bullpen, and who\u2019s managing?<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018Hey, I want to get an MRI, kind of see what\u2019s going on,\u2019\u201d Miller said. \u201cAnd they shut me down the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead of playing in the Arizona Fall League, Miller went for daily treatment at the Phillies\u2019 facility in Clearwater, Fla., a half-hour drive from where he grew up. Mostly, though, his back responded to rest.<\/p>\n Miller didn\u2019t hit much until spring training. And in his first at-bat against a pitcher, he twisted out of the way of a wayward pitch and felt his back tighten up again.<\/p>\n \u201cIt felt like I was back at square one,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t getting any better.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the next two months, Miller got multiple opinions from back specialists in between cortisone shots and other treatment. In June, the Phillies disclosed a two-pronged diagnosis: discogenic pain, and facet inflammation in the lumbar spine. Miller underwent a radiofrequency ablation, a minimally invasive procedure that uses needles and heat from radio waves to block a nerve from sending pain signals to the brain.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first heard it, I was like, \u2018I\u2019m not doing that,\u2019\u201d Miller said. \u201cAnd then I read a little bit more into it, and it\u2019s very non-invasive.\u201d<\/p>\n It also didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n \u201cI went in, I did it, and the doctor says like, \u2018Three or four days, let the shot kick in, let your body kind of reset,\u2019\u201d Miller said. \u201cAnd it honestly didn\u2019t bring me much relief.\u201d<\/p>\n A few weeks later, Miller was referred to Brady\u2019s TB12 wellness and fitness center in downtown Tampa. After a three-day trial that involved massage and soft-tissue therapy, he was told that the tightness was less about his back than weakness in the muscles around it, including the glutes and psoas.<\/p>\n Eureka!<\/p>\n \u201cI remember my first session with them, it probably lasted like two hours, it was gone. My pain was gone,\u201d Miller said. \u201cAnd I was like, OK, there\u2019s something to this. The pain came back probably 24 hours later, but the fact that we could get it to go away that fast was the first time I\u2019ve had that sensation in that whole process.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, I started going back to them every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n Phillies medical coordinator Justin Ahrens went with him and \u201cbasically mastered the soft-tissue aspect of what they do,\u201d Miller said. It became critical treatment for an issue that he now refers to as \u201cchronic tightness\u201d rather than a back condition.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see people with chronic back pain, they can\u2019t do anything,\u201d Miller said. \u201cUsually like sitting down hurts for a long period of time, like when they wake up. I didn\u2019t have any of that. … It was more of just being so tight that everything was just kind of relying on my back, which was giving me the pain. The pain wasn\u2019t really stemming from the back. <\/p>\n \u201cAnd the more I\u2019ve loosened that up \u2014 I have a good routine now where I\u2019m laying on massage balls, moving through it, getting in the gym, still working on my core, still working on all that stuff \u2014 the better I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller calls it \u201cbulletproofing the back.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just something I\u2019m going to have to do for the rest of my career,\u201d he said, \u201cwhich is good because it makes me feel great in all aspects.\u201d<\/p>\n A Reading rainbow<\/p>\n Miller returned to the field on Sept. 5 \u2014 354 days after his last game. He doubled in his first at-bat for low-A Clearwater and played five innings at shortstop.<\/p>\n Three days later, he joined double-A Reading.<\/p>\n The Phillies outlined a plan for Miller to spend one week there and the last week of the season in triple A. But when Reading qualified for the playoffs, Miller wanted to stay put.<\/p>\n \u201cI called the front office,\u201d he said. \u201cI was like, \u2018I want to stay here. I want to play for a championship. I think this is really important for me; it\u2019s important for the team.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: The most imaginative changes the Phillies can make begin with moving Trea Turner off shortstop<\/a><\/p>\n Reading swept Hartford and Erie in a pair of best-of-three series to win the club\u2019s first outright Eastern League championship since 1995. Miller had two hits, including an RBI double, in the clinching game.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a great end to a long year,\u201d he said. \u201cI think winning is the best development, knowing what it\u2019s like to be in a pressure situation. It\u2019s like, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve got to get this run in at the plate.\u2019 … Just knowing how to win, doing the little things, backing up a base, saving a run, stuff like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller, who models his game after former Phillies free-agent target Bo Bichette, is playing third base in the Fall League, a potential precursor to replacing free agent Alec Bohm<\/a>. But Dombrowski also met with Turner this week and issued what amounted to an ultimatum: Improve your defense, or get moved off shortstop<\/a>. <\/p>\n In that case, Dombrowski mentioned Miller as an alternative there.<\/p>\n First, there\u2019s another few weeks in the desert, where Miller was 7-for-14 with a double, a triple, and 10 walks through five games. Then, there\u2019s that golfing trip with his buddies, former teammates on the U.S. national under-18 team.<\/p>\n In 2023, the Phillies drafted Miller 10 spots ahead of McGonigle, even though the eventual Tigers star grew up in their backyard. Miller said he talks to McGonigle \u201call the time\u201d on a group text message.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s always been one of the best hitters I\u2019ve been around, man,\u201d Miller said. \u201cHe\u2019s so mature for his age. It didn\u2019t surprise me at all to see what he did this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Imagine what it would mean for the Phillies to get that from Miller next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min Three years ago, four friends celebrated the end of their first season as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":930695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[497528,64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-930694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-aidan-miller-injury-update-back-roster-alec-bohm-third-base","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930694","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=930694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/930695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}