One number from Bryce Miller will instantly make Mariners fans feel better

It's fair to say this has been one of the more eventful springs for the Seattle Mariners, but the main thing is that only Bryce Miller and J.P. Crawford are expected to begin the season on the 15-day injured list. Crawford is projected to return first — potentially as soon as Apr. 1— but Miller is also showing encouraging progress.

The main reason for the encouragement surrounding Miller is the bullpen session he threw on Monday in Peoria, with it being his first 100 percent session since he suffered his left oblique issue at the back-end of February. He had first attempted a full bullpen session a couple of weeks ago, but smartly cut it short after feeling discomfort in his left side.

Bryce Miller looking more like his old self with a full throttle fastball

This time around it went extremely well, possibly even better than expected, as Miller went through his whole repotoire of pitches and drew vocal and excited reactions from teammates watching the bullpen session. Shannon Drayer of Seattle Sports also watched the whole session, with the particularly noteworthy comment that the righty topped out at 98 mph on his fastball.

This is a tremendous relief for the Mariners, because last Tuesday Miller was only reaching 91 mph when he threw about 39 pitches in a short bullpen session, albeit with the proviso that he was only throwing at around 80 percent effort. In any event he's clearly now looking more like what he did in his spring training debut versus the Cleveland Guardians, when he averaged 97.3 mph on his four-seamer.

As much as the 27-year-old does have a variety of enticing pitches in his arsenal, the heater remains his bread and butter, so it's important that he's looking more like his old self. Even more so when you consider his fastball took a minor dip in velocity last year compared to his first two Major League seasons, as he battled lingering right elbow inflammation.

Mariners can deal with Bryce Miller's absence, but the sooner he returns to the rotation the better

Now it's a case of Miller just needing to be built up, with live batting practices on the horizon followed by those all important rehab starts as long as he continues to progress with his recovery. No one is ready to say when he will be back in the Mariners rotation at this stage, but we predict that it will be around a month as long as he suffers no further setbacks.

The Mariners are confident they have the horses to cover Miller's absence in the rotation at least for the short-term, with Emerson Hancock and Cooper Criswell looking like the main candidates to replace him. Hancock in particular is an intriguing option, following an encouraging spring which included 21 strikeouts and just one walk over 15.0 combined innings.

Make no mistake though that the sooner the unassuming Miller is back to full health the better, with him arguably underrated for what he brings to the Mariners. Let's not forget this is a pitcher who led the best rotation in baseball with a 3.4 bWAR in 2024 and last season was outstanding during the playoffs, highlighted by a sterling performance in Game 1 of the ALCS versus the Toronto Blue Jays.