Bryce Miller's offseason sneak peak will have Mariners fans rallying to his side

Spring training is looming, which means we're not far from fluffy news stories about how players are looking. So and so is in the best shape of his life. So and so has added velocity. And so on.

Bryce Miller, though, doesn't want to wait for Seattle Mariners fans to find out what he's been up to this winter. He posted two videos of some offseason throwing to X, and the revelation that he's gained 12 pounds isn't even the exclamation mark.

Watch the first video to the end, and you'll see Miller hitting 98.3 mph on the gun at. Here's what's notable about it: that's as fast as he threw all year in 2025.

Bryce's Miller offseason weight, velo gains will have Mariners fans rallying to his side

There's only so much that can be gleaned from all this, but let's go ahead and be optimistic anyway. It would seem that A) Miller's elbow is just fine after a bone spur forced him on the IL twice last year and B) that he's ready to put his fastball back on the map in 2026.

The pitch had a rather shocking downfall from 2024 to 2025, notably going from a Run Value of plus-19 to minus-8. That was even though he only lost 0.4 mph on his average velocity, even as his top speed actually increased by 1 mph over his max from 2024.

It's to Miller's credit that last season wasn't a totally lost year in the end. Though his regular-season ERA jumped from 2.94 to 5.68, he was the best starter the Mariners had in the postseason to the tune of a 2.51 ERA over 14.1 innings.

If he can go from that to throwing 98 mph with the start of spring training still weeks away, it's hard to see Miller's trendline as pointed anywhere but up. The Mariners should be stoked about that, as the prize is nothing less than a top-of-the-rotation arm working at the back end of their 2026 rotation.

Which, in turn, makes it a little cringe that all this is happening against the backdrop of a salary dispute.

It was less than two weeks ago that Miller and the Mariners filed salary figures ahead of arbitration, with the right-hander filing at $2.625 million and the Mariners countering at $2.25 million. That's only a $375,000 gap, which should have made it possible to at least meet in the middle. Frankly, the Mariners would have been better off submitting to Miller's figure, under the logic that $375,000 is a small price to pay to keep their relationship with him nice and peachy.

The Mariners instead dug in, choosing to take Miller to an arbitration hearing. It was an ick move — we know that's not colloquially correct, but this is a family site — on their part, and it puts fans in a position to hope that things don't get too testy in Miller's hearing. These things have been known to happen, after all.

No matter what happens, Miller is clearly determined to go out there and redeem himself in 2026. That would be huge for the Mariners, yet it would also amount to egg on their face after they treated him so callously during the winter.