D-backs’ Shelby Miller ‘getting close’ after third extended spring start

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Shelby Miller is no longer playing with putty and laboring to build back the strength in his surgically-repaired elbow. He’s a starting pitcher again, and the worst part of his grind now might just be that he has to pitch earlier in the day than normal.

He’s “getting close,” he said Wednesday after after a 10:30 a.m. extended spring training start at Salt River Fields. Unofficially, he threw 66 pitches (45 for strikes) against the Giants, allowing one run on two hits with four strikeouts and no walks. His four punchouts were on four consecutive hitters in the fourth and fifth innings, and his velocity reportedly reached around 95 mph.

“Definitely the second, third and fourth innings were pretty good, as far as how I felt,” he said. “The fifth inning, just got a little lazy and a little tired, but other than that I felt really good and strong the whole time.”

“My arm feels great. I think it’s more just going through the motions and just getting myself back in shape to pitch seven, eight innings as a starting pitcher, is really what I mean by getting tired is just the physical and draining part of going out there and throwing 70 pitches in a game is not easy, plus the 30 in the bullpen warming up. I’m sweating my tail off out there.”

As for what’s next, Miller wasn’t sure whether his next start would be another one in extended spring training or if he would go to an affiliate team, though he assumed it would be an affiliate.

Miller said he was told by D-backs manager Torey Lovullo that even with injuries to Taijuan Walker and Robbie Ray, the team would not rush him back or do anything that doesn’t align with protocol. Still, a return to the big league club in the near future for Miller would represent the quicker side of a Tommy John recovery timeline. He last pitched in a major league game on April 23, 2017 — just over a year ago — had surgery that May and was expected to see a 12-to-18-month recovery.

“It’s tough. There’s a lot of things that goes on behind the scenes that a lot of people don’t know about,” he said. “First couple months, three months, you’re in the training room for three hours out of the day doing little things like grabbing Play-Doh and putty and all kinds of stuff that you’re like, ‘How does this help me?’ It’s a mental grind for sure.”

Miller said he’s seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and wants to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

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