Ken Rosenthal: Shelby Miller ‘will be a quality major-league pitcher again’
Feb 20, 2017, 12:44 PM
(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
The worst move of the offseason.
A move that “has a chance to go down as one of the worst trades of the last 25 years.”
Midseason “NL Cy Yuk.”
These are just some of the descriptions of Diamondbacks pitcher Shelby Miller’s acquisition and disastrous first season in Arizona.
Miller was certainly not the player the Diamondbacks hoped he would be when former GM Dave Stewart traded three impressive young talents, including 2015 first overall pick Dansby Swanson, for him last offseason.
His performance was so poor that it even had Stewart publicly expressing his regret regarding the trade.
However, Fox Sports’s Ken Rosenthal believes Miller should be able to turn it around and prove his doubters wrong.
You read it here first: Miller will be a quality major-league pitcher again. Maybe not the No. 2 starter that Stewart envisioned. But someone closer to the guy who had a 3.27 ERA in 95 starts between 2013 and ’15.
He struggled mightily throughout his first season in Phoenix, finishing with a 3-12 record, 6.15 ERA and 1.67 WHIP. In fact, the 2015 All-Star ended the year with more runs allowed (72) than strikeouts (70).
Miller got off to a horrid start to the season, with an 8.69 ERA in five April starts. However, he did pitch better as the season went along, including a 3.98 ERA in the final six games following a stint in the Triple-A with the Reno Aces.
Rosenthal thinks the 26-year-old will be able to justify the Diamondbacks’ faith in him going forward.
The DBacks control him for three more seasons, and I’m going to take an educated guess and predict that they will not regret it.
Miller obviously has the potential to be a solid starter, as he owned a career 3.22 ERA and 1.24 WHIP in four seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves prior to his trade to the desert.
He joins Zack Greinke, Robbie Ray and Patrick Corbin as Diamondbacks pitchers looking to bounce back following disappointing performances in 2016.