Athletics set to promote flame-throwing right-hander Mason Miller
Prize prospect Mason Miller to get a look after minimal minor league experience.
OAKLAND — With their pitching staff in shambles and in the midst of the woeful start to the season, the Athletics are planning to promote prize prospect Mason Miller from Triple-A Las Vegas, the Bay Area News Group has learned.
Miller, 25, struck out 11 batters in five innings in his recent start against the Salt Lake City Bees with 24 of his 63 pitches registering 100-plus miles per hour.
First reported by the Chronicle, Miller, 24, is due to arrive in Oakland possibly as soon as Tuesday and could wind up starting Wednesday’s getaway-day game at the Coliseum against the Chicago Cubs.
Besides the velocity, the quality that A’s manager Mark Kotsay and pitching coach Scott Emerson will appreciate is control. Miller did not walk a batter against Salt Lake City. The only base runner came on a dropped third strike. In two games, the first with Double-A Midland, Miller has struck out 19 batters with no walks in 8 2/3 innings.
A third-round draft pick out of Gardner-Webb in 2021, Miller (6-foot-5, 220 pounds) is ranked as the A’s No. 3 prospect and has pitched in only four professional games with a 1-3 record and 53 strikeouts with six walks in 28 2/3 innings with a 2.83 earned run average.
In his senior year at Gardner-Webb, Miller was 8-1 with 121 strikeouts and 30 walks in 92 2/3 innings.
The A’s, 3-14 heading in to Tuesday night’s game against the Chicago Cubs, have lost their last five games, 11 of the last 12 and 14 of their last 16 games. With a loss to in the remaining two games, they’ll have lost each of their first six series — something that hasn’t happened in the history of the franchise including Philadelphia and Kansas City.
Rookie Kyle Muller, the A’s Opening Day starter, gave up 13 hits in four-plus innings in a 10-1 loss Monday night with the Cubs hitting .455 against four A’s pitchers.
As a staff, the A’s have a league-worst 7.74 ERA, are 28th in strikeouts with 118 and first in walks with 88.
Two starting pitchers, 2022 All-Star Paul Blackburn and free agent Drew Rucinski, are still in the rehab process in Las Vegas and not yet ready to pitch. Blackburn had a setback with a blister on the oft-injured middle finger of his throwing hand and his return date is uncertain.
The scheduled starter Wednesday is James Kaprielian, who is 0-2 with a 12.15 ERA and 12 walks in 13 1/3 innings.
More on the story as it develops