Tyson Miller was a huge bright spot for the Chicago Cubs last year. This season, he never appeared in a game at the major league level.
Professional baseball is all about timing, good and bad. Miller sustained a hip impingement this year during spring training, and wasn’t able to make his season debut until late April, on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Iowa.
After a trip to the 60-day injured list and a brutal start to the season in the minors, the Cubs decided there was no longer enough reason to keep Miller on the 40-man roster. He was designated for assignment on June 5, and although he played out the remainder of the season in the organization, he never came close to sniffing the majors.
That made the decision fairly easy for Miller, the four-year major league veteran. According to his official transactions page, the 30-year-old elected free agency on Thursday.
Miller was truly a revelation for the Cubs last season. After arriving in a low-cost trade with the Seattle Mariners, he pitched to a 2.15 ERA and 0.82 WHIP in 50 1/3 innings, good for 1.3 wins above replacement. He allowed just 31 hits, walked 10 batters, and struck out 42.
Though it’s not as though he was in the mix to be the team’s closer, Miller almost certainly would have had a prominent role to open the season had he stayed healthy. Instead, he spent much of the season trying to get healthy, and when he took the mound in Iowa, he couldn’t display any of the dominance that kept him in the majors last summer.
In 37 1/3 innings for Iowa, Miller’s ERA was 6.27 this season. The most startling number was his 34 walks, giving him a WHIP of 1.93.
Once a fourth-round pick for the Cubs, Miller has also pitched for the Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Mariners at the big-league level.
It was a tough year, and Miller now has to watch as most of his teammates from last season compete in the playoffs. But all he can do at this point is try to show he’s healthy and impress a team enough to give him a shot at the big-league roster in spring training.
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