2024 Mariners Player Rankings: Bryce Miller comes in at #9

The Mariners have been developing quite the young stable of starting pitchers, and it's both a boon and a black mark against the team in the fact that 5 of the Mariners starting pitchers make it into the top 11. Shoot, if Robbie Ray was healthy, you would have 6 SP in the top 12. We already looked at Bryan Woo, who came in at #11, earlier in the week.

Personally, I'm a bigger fan of Bryce Miller. I really like the "rise" of his fastball, which so many people were comparing to Spencer Strider when he first came up. It doesn't fall near as fall as the average fastball, making it look to rise in the hitters eyes. For a game that relies so much on instinct and muscle memory, it leads to a lot of people swinging under his heater or watching it catch the bottom of the zone.

For those who are wary about Miller, it is understandable when you take a look at his baseball savant page. The numbers don't look great. Red is better than blue, and there isn't a lot on his page. It is worth noting that he hardly walks people.

It's funny though, because his ERA was actually worse than his FIP last year, meaning that he actually could've posted even better numbers than he did. For someone who moved to being a full-time starter his final year of college in 2021, it was impressive to see him throw 151 innings this year, with 133.1 of them coming with the Mariners.

I think that may have played a part in his late season struggles, faced with so many innings and potential fatigue at the end of the year. I think a full offseason to continue building his arm and the experience of an almost full season in the bigs, 25 starts, will be a nice arrow in the proverbial quiver for getting through a full season.

If Miller can continue to build on that heater and improve on the slider, he should see improvement this coming season and push, alongside Woo, up into a true #3 pitcher. Which would be huge for the Mariners to have no one worse than a #3 in their rotation. I'm looking forward to watching Bryce MIller this season.