OAKLAND, Calif. — The Pirates series had been circled on Mason Miller’s calendar for quite a while.
Miller, now a closer for the Oakland Athletics, grew up a Pirates fan and attended nearby Bethel Park High School. He used to go to games at PNC Park every summer, and even pitched there once his senior year of high school.
But Miller sprained the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow last May, forcing him to sit out last season’s A’s-Pirates series and not travel with the team to Pittsburgh. The significance of being healthy this time around isn’t lost on the 25-year-old Miller, who even threw with a couple Pirates pitchers this past winter.
“This is a full circle, pretty surreal moment to be playing against a childhood team,” Miller told the Post-Gazette.
Miller isn’t just a member of the A’s bullpen this year; he’s been one of the top closers in MLB, with a 1.46 ERA and 25 strikeouts in just 12 ⅓ innings. No pitcher in the league is throwing harder than Miller, whose four-seam fastball averages out to 100.7 mph, per Baseball Savant.
Miller is working in a relief role rather than as a starter in the club’s effort to maintain his health. But whenever he’s toed the rubber, Miller has been as effective a pitcher as any.
“To be able to come back from what was a pretty scary injury last year, to be able to perform at the level I’m performing at this year, it’s a reflection of the hard work I put in,” Miller said. “I’m also really grateful to be in this situation, all things considered.”
Just six years ago, Miller was pitching at Division III Waynesburg University and preparing for a summer internship at Allegheny Health Network. A routine drug test to work for the company turned into Miller being rushed to the emergency room.
The then-6-foot-5, 155-pound Miller was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, helping explain why he had lost 20 pounds while pitching collegiately. The normal blood sugar levels for a healthy person range between 80-120 mg/dL. Miller’s were around 700 mg/dL.
“It was a total shock,” Miller said. “I didn’t go in thinking I’d end up in the ER by the end of the day, but it was nice to finally know what was going on with my body.”
His first two years of college, Miller produced ERAs of more than 7.00 and threw in the mid 80s. Once he started taking insulin every time he ate and changed his diet to be higher in protein and lower in carbs, Miller added 50 pounds to his once-slender frame.
By his junior campaign, Miller was throwing in the low 90s, dominating the competition and drawing attention from MLB teams. He transferred to Gardner-Webb to finish out his college career, dominating lineups littered with future MLB draft choices before becoming one himself.
The A’s picked Miller in the third round of the 2021 draft, and he debuted with the team in April of 2023 after just 10 minor-league starts across four levels.
“It’s been quick,” Miller said. “Sometimes, I feel like it was just yesterday that I got diagnosed. But, it’s been a lot of hard work and a lot of time put into it over the past several years to get to this point, too.”
Now, Miller gets to live out what he coined a “childhood dream” in pitching against the Pirates. It wasn’t something Miller considered a realistic possibility growing up given the way his high school career went or how his collegiate one started.
Unfortunately for Miller, his family won’t be in Oakland to see him throw against the hometown team. But on the A’s latest road trip, he was joined by family and friends in both Cleveland and Baltimore.
When Miller first took the mound for the A’s last spring, he made history by being Bethel Park’s first alumnus to pitch in MLB. Odds are by the end of the Pirates’ current three-game set, Miller will also be able to say he threw against the team he used to root for all those summer nights on the North Shore.
“Surreal. It’s really like a dream come true,” Miller said. “Moments like this put it in perspective how far I’ve come and the blessing that I have to be in this situation and living out my dream.”
Andrew Destin: adestin@post-gazette.com and @AndrewDestin1 on X
First Published: April 30, 2024, 1:43 a.m.
Updated: April 30, 2024, 2:17 a.m.