Jan. 10: Miller can earn $1.25MM worth of bonuses based on days spent on the active roster and another $1.75MM worth of bonuses based on innings pitched, tweets Fancred’s Jon Heyman. The innings incentives kick in once he reaches 60 innings and cap out at 180 innings.
Jan. 9, 5:00pm: The Rangers have announced the signing. Texas also formally announced its previously reported minor league signings of right-hander Jeanmar Gomez and infielder/outfielder Danny Santana. Both Gomez and Santana will be in Spring Training as non-roster invitees.
4:20pm: Miller will receive a $2MM guarantee, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. ESPN’s Jeff Passan adds that incentives in the deal provide Miller with the opportunity to earn an additional $3MM. Rosenthal tweets that Miller has already passed his physical, meaning the deal is complete. Presumably, a formal announcement from the Rangers will follow in the near future.
4:08pm: The Rangers are in agreement on a one-year, Major League contract with right-hander Shelby Miller, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets.
Miller, a client of Roc Nation Sports, will be the latest addition for a Texas club that has worked to dramatically overhaul its starting rotation on the heels of a disastrous 2018 season. Texas added left-hander Drew Smyly in a trade at the outset of the offseason and has since signed Lance Lynn on a three-year contract and selected the contract of veteran righty Edinson Volquez, who was signed last offseason to a two-year minor league contract in the wake of Aug. 2017 Tommy John surgery. That quartet, presumably, will team up with lefty Mike Minor to comprise the Rangers’ rotation early in the 2019 campaign (health permitting).
Certainly, it’s a group with plenty of potential, although it’s also one that comes with an extreme degree of uncertainty. Miller is perhaps the greatest wild card of the bunch, as the righty underwent Tommy John surgery early in the 2017 season and missed the bulk of the 2018 campaign due to a separate set of elbow issues. In all, Miller has been limited to just 38 innings across the past two seasons.
Of course, it wasn’t that long ago that the now-28-year-old Miller looked to be one off the game’s most promising young pitchers. As a prospect, Miller was ranked within the game’s top 10 overall prospects by Baseball America heading into both the 2012 and 2013 seasons, and he did little to dispel the notion that he was a rising star with his early career work. Miller posted a 3.33 ERA over the life of 370 innings in his first two-plus seasons with the Cardinals from 2012-14 before being flipped to the Braves as part of a deal that sent then-star outfielder Jason Heyward from Atlanta to St. Louis.
Miller’s lone season with the Braves looked nothing short of spectacular on paper, as he notched a career-best 3.02 ERA over the course of a career-high 205 1/3 innings. It was a strong year all around for Miller, but one in which he enjoyed a torrid two-month start to the season before delivering roughly league-average levels of output over the final four months. Even with some regression to be expected, however, he looked every bit the part of a quality big league starter, though the D-backs were widely criticized for surrendering a package of Ender Inciarte, Dansby Swanson and Aaron Blair in order to acquire him in the 2015-16 offseason.
Lopsided as the trade appeared, no one could have foreseen the catastrophic collapse Miller experienced with Arizona in his first season there. The right-hander limped to a ghastly 6.15 ERA as he averaged a career-low K/9 (6.24) and a career-high BB/9 (3.74) and HR/9 (1.25). Miller was even demoted to Triple-A that season amid the most pronounced struggles of his career, and while he looked more promising in four starts early in the 2017 season, he then required the aforementioned Tommy John surgery that wiped out much of the 2017-18 seasons.
For Texas, Miller represents a pure upside play at a minimal cost. While the homer-friendly Globe Life Park is hardly an ideal setting for Miller to attempt to rebuild his career, the Rangers can surely offer him a guaranteed rotation spot and were willing to commit a spot on the 40-man roster — a pair of enticements that many contending clubs may not have been willing to offer. If he’s able to round into form, he’ll be a highly appealing trade asset this summer, given the modest financial commitment at stake in this contract.
As for the rest of the Rangers’ staff, Lynn will be looking to bounce back from an awful season split between the Twins and the Yankees — though he at the very least demonstrated some highly intriguing K/BB numbers after being traded from Minnesota to New York. The three-year term for Lynn was a surprise to most, but as a non-contending club in a hitter-friendly park, the Rangers likely had to top other suitors in convincing fashion. Meanwhile, neither Smyly nor Volquez has thrown a pitch since undergoing their own pair of Tommy John surgeries. Smyly missed all of the 2017 and 2018 seasons, while Volquez hasn’t thrown since late in the 2017 campaign. In the case of Volquez, this was his second career Tommy John procedure.
That trade did not age well for diamondbacks
Diamondbacks lost the trade but it’s not like Swanson would have done anything for them during their competitive window. He still has a chance to be good, but realistically Ahmed/Marte were better than him from 2017-2018, the competitive window.
Inciarte alone made that trade a win for the Braves.
Right, Ender with a couple gold gloves and a solid bat was huge in this rebuild and made a trade a win for us. Hoping he bring his bat back to norm after a down year last year
Yeah I never said otherwise. But Pollock/Peralta would be locks for their OF and Inciarte would likely have only platooned with Souza at best. But yeah the Braves won the trade for sure, just saying the Diamondbacks didn’t really have use for the players they sent other than using them as trade chips for a better player than Miller.
They wouldn’t have acquired Souza or if they did they would’ve gotten additional assets for Inciarte. All in and all it wasn’t the absolute trade rape it could’ve been but it was a major loss. IMO Dave Stewart’s worse move could be trading Touki for essentially 10 mil in cash.
Don’t forget the Braves got the better of the trade with the Cardinals too.
You could argue the trade was a win for the Cardinals. I doubt the Cubs would have ponied up that money if the Cardinals weren’t the ones trying to sign him
There’s such a long list of terrible moves made during the Stewart/LaRussa era. They should go down as one of the worst front offices in recent history,
This overpay was the most infamous. Thankfully for them, Swanson hasn’t worked out and Blair fell off the map. But the consensus at the time was that Miller outperformed his peripherals and was expected to regress (albeit not as bad as it actually was). Inciarte himself was probably too much to offer considering his success and control at the time. Adding in the #1 overall draft pick and a solid prospect was just crazy.
The Touki deal, of course, was also a perplexing one. Trading a Top 100 prospect to save $10 million doesn’t make much sense, especially considering where they ended up spending that money.
Then they also dealt a competitive balance pick to the Braves in another trade. That draft they left $1.7 million in bonus pool money on the table that could’ve been used to sign higher talent draft picks.
Then there’s the Yoan Lopez signing. They overpaid for him too, giving him $8+ million (and paid an equal tax penalty). Not only was it a bad deal, but they lost the ability to sign any big IFA the following two years, including the 2015-16 period in which they would’ve had the highest bonus pool.
Then you have the other terrible deals they signed. The 6 year, $206 million contract for Greinke. The $68 million for Yasmany Tomas. Both of these played major roles in the failure to resign JD Martinez or extend Paul Goldschmidt.
The only good thing that came out of that trade for the dbacks was that blair was a bust. Swanson isnt a star,but still a good player. Inciarte was the best player in that package. And i think the dbacks miss him alot
Especially after Pollock leaves
Young controllable pitching!
That’s what the Diamondbacks traded for.
Arlington isn’t an easy place to pitch but I like Miller aa a bounce back candidate
When you hit the bottom that fast and that hard, physics demands a pretty significant rebound
Something isn’t right. I don’t know what it is. But I can say for sure fans put that trade on his shoulders. He had to make good on it and be lights out and that’s a lot for a guy in his mid 20s
I admit I was mostly making a joke, but it is starting how south things went for him in a hurry.
Personally I think part of the problem is the franchise he went to was so backwards at the time it’s possible they just messed with him too much to try and make him the pitcher they thought he could be instead of what he actually was.
It’s totally not on him that a bunch of out-of-touch dopes overpaid for him. I wish him well going forward.
So the Rangers are going for a rotation completely made up of spare parts. This should be one of the worst teams in MLB this year.
So no different than last year…..
In a rebuild so the hope is to be able to have the young pitchers in the minors be ready mid season and hit on one or two of these guys to flip to a contender. Low payroll so worth the risk as most of these guys were really good pitchers before they got hurt and they are all right at that point where it either starts working again or they are done.
So just 3 of 5 starters didn’t pitch last year. Before opening day we could have 5 of 5 starters that didn’t pitch last year.
That could prove to be a steal if he regains some of his old form.
Comeback player of the year candidate.
sonny grey has a better chance
Ugh. I wanted him and Cobb to come to the Padres.
Ty Cobb is dead.
Good with Stl and great with Braves. High expectations for a young pitcher after the trade to DBacks. Change of scenery could help. Forget about all that and just pitch
The trade that D’Backs fans don’t want to hear about
This guy was all class for us during his time in Arizona and I wish him nothing but luck. I’m sure being able to play in his home state would’ve been big for him. I truly hope he can regain his past form.
Dylan;
Classy comments, re: Miller.
Sometimes a team can do everything right, and still make things a thousand times worse.
I don’t think Texas is a great stadium for his potential comeback. He’ll have the opportunity and not a lot of pressure, but I would have tried to go to Kansas City or Seattle or San Francisco to rebuild value in a more pitcher friendly environment. If he has a bad year in 2019, he might not get another chance in the majors.
And on the other side if he thinks he can make it then succeeding in Texas will mean more to anyone signing him next year.
This was probably his best option. Period. Teams aren’t lining up to pay a guy like Miller at this point. He’s been a total non-factor for years now.
This pitching staff just might be worth something this year. Injury plague vets who at times shown to be really good pitchers. What if they some how, by the grace of the baseball gods, pitch like they have shown they can all at the same time. Scary lol. Unlikely but never know… could be a decent rotation
Texas is collecting pitchers they hope bounce back to flip at the deadline lol
What’s funny about that? Daniels did that with Gagne 14 years ago so if Texas can do it again and turn 1 or 2 if these guys into several good prospects it helps the rebuild.
Really rooting for him to get it together for a big comeback. He is a really great person to fans,.Had hoped he would sign with the Cards, but I’m sure he has a better shot to stay in the rotation with the Rangers.
Outside of Lynn the other 4 are just place holding/innings eaters that can hopefully show enough durability that they can be traded mid summer
Lynn is probably a trade candidate as well
Has the potential to be the steal of the offseason. We see it all the time where pitchers are actually better after TJ, and other than that one bad season in AZ Miller was a stud.
He’s gonna get rocked in that Stadium.
Nice. Possible low risk/high reward signing.
I was saying same! Exact! Only worries? Miller big upside, yes. Drew Smily big upside, yes. But both? Lean on for rotation making, for innings eating?
Probably still need, proven durable, two long relievers or one journey man starter.
They have a young guy who has potential to be AT LEAST a #3 & possibly 1a or #2 starter in Ariel Jurado.
Jurado? A top of the rotation starter? According to who!? I’ve never seen a scouting report that’s projected him as anything more than a back of the rotation starter.
Sure, he’s young and has decent control. But pitchers that are that hittable very, very rarely become dominant. Even as a reliever in the low minors, he never posted a H/9 under 8.1, and in the upper minors he never posted a K/9 rate above 5.4.
He certainly wasn’t good last season in the majors – 10.9 H/9, 1.2 HR/9, 3.6 BB/9. To be a top of the rotation starter, you typically need three pitchers that grade out as plus or better. Jurado’s 2-seamer is the only pitch that’s ever flashed plus. His other offerings are solidly below-average, average at best. Jurado’s strong points are his control, durability, and ability to get groundballs when his 2SFB/sinker is working right, His ceiling is that of a #3 pitcher; he just doesn’t have the stuff to be much better. According to Baseball America, who ranked him the #31 prospect in Texas after 2017, “Jurado’s changeup and slider are 40-45 pitches on the 20-80 scale, so without his two-seamer, Jurado’s stuff looked vanilla. If he can re-discover his sinker, Jurado could still fit in at the back of a rotation
Next Texas will sign Tommy John himself.
Tommy John is a bounce back candidate.
The stuff is there, just hope he can overcome the injuries and reach his potential
The problem is that the stuff ISN’T there anymore. He hasn’t had the stuff in years.
I like the signing for Texas…but not for Miller. I feel a team like San Diego or Pittsburgh would have been a better choice if they were even showing interest. I would have stayed in the NL….Petco is pitcher friendly and may have helped his numbers for a better potential cash in next winter. But good luck to him…still young enough to re-invent himself and bounce back
Agreed but as in almost all free agent deals he likely took the most money. He will have to learn to deal with the park.
This seems like a tremendous bargain.
Not a huge Miller fan but could have been a low risk option for Oakland.
I was hoping Toronto was going to land him.
Was writing the same thing. Wonder why they didn’t look into it. He is right in Atkins sweet spot of a player: cheap, has some upside, and if successful, can be flipped at the deadline
I’d assume there were a lot of teams interested in him, but I’m going to guess that growing up two hours from Arlington played a big role in the Rangers landing him.
Like him as a pitcher, not in that ballpark in that division.
Exactly! Not only a hitters park but it must be so tough to pitch in that heat against HOU, LAA and that A’s lineup.
Overwhelming majority of Dback fans hate Shelby for letting us down and embarrassing us with the Atlanta trade. I still believe he has potential. Still like him and root for him to have a big bounce back year.
i would have preferred to see Shelby go somewhere that was a more pitching-friendly park and had an experienced piching coach with a history of rejuvinating pitching careers.
well, good luck Shelby Miller. i’ve held onto all my Shelby Miller auto’d cards. gonna hold off on investing in any more until we see a little Cardinal or Braves version show up.
Braves could have sign him for that much and I would have been happy
If this was 2014 then the Rangers would have a really good looking rotation
The AL West should do wonders for Miller’s career.
I recall a great exchange between Shelby Miller & Yadier Molina a few years back – it was a Sunday night game. Yadi was fed up with Miller shaking him off, reminded me of Crash Davis & Nuke LaLoosh. “I want to bring the heater. Announce my presence with authority.”
This may turn out to be a really good signing, I like the fit for both sides. Hopefully the lower pressure with Texas can translate into results for him
Another Question? For my Rangers ! I get it 2019 will be a “ DUD “
I appreciate the article. I’m pulling for Miller. The comment section, however, is very uninspiring. Boring! Nothing unique or even funny. Just obvious, predictable observations.
I could force politics into it but if that would help?
Nothing much creative to say, decent low risk move for a team that’s kind of an afterthought right now.
Wouldn’t it be hilarious if all these guys had great seasons and took the Rangers to the playoffs when they aren’t expected to compete at all?
Put everything you’ve got on ‘em.
This GM is the model for future GMs on how to start out with a good team then ruin a good team
You forgot the back to back WS. Not every team can stay good forever. Even the Yankees had to rebuild (although pretty quickly)
unlike the Cardinals, the Rangers farm system has been crap when it comes to developing pitchers. so JD has to line up a bunch of arms that might be good trade candidates later this year and do some flips for future talent. texas has also been talking with former Ranger standout, Derek Holland about returning.
I wouldn’t call Holland a standout.
Lowkey, good signing by the rangers haha. I wouldn’t have mind if the halos picked him up for cheap.
Jeeze, for two million I could make an argument 80% of teams should have gone in, no brainer for the rangers.
Problem from his standpoint is what team is going to give him a 40 man spot and pencil him in now to start while also being able to weather 3-4 bad starts and not pull him. Rangers can invest 2 months of starts in him before pulling the plug on the project.
If I had to guess, I’d bet the fact that Miller grew up a couple hours away from Arlington played a big role as well.
I thought it was dumb of the Cubs to let Smyly go for so little in return because he has a huge upside. It would have been better for Cubs to let him take the 5th spot in the rotation and trade Quintana which would have saved them a few million bucks (which they could really use right now)
amazing he has earned over 15 mill so far.
He signs with the Rangers and we all immediately refer to Braves/D-backs trade. Poor guy will be forever remembered for that, I hope and bet he bounces back nicely. Besides, in retrospect that trade wasn’t even that lopsided as it first seemed…geez now I’m talking about it lol
Where is the story for the Braves winning the grievance filed by Carter Stewart? They will keep the ninth pick in the draft.
If Texas can somehow keep the losses in double digits, that would be a win. 63-99 is the goal