Bryce Miller has improved on his 2023 rookie season with the Seattle Mariners. Especially notable are his ERA (3.46 versus last year’s 4.32), FIP (3.70 versus 3.98), and OPS against opposite-handed hitters (.685 OPS versus .917). At the same time, many of his numbers have been strikingly similar. When I spoke to the 25-year-old right-hander at the end of July — he’s since made two starts — his win-loss record and average fastball velocity were identical to last year’s marks, as were his FB% and HR/FB%. His strikeout rate differed by just a few percentage points.
I cited those similarities to the righty, then proceeded to ask him what differentiates this season’s version of Bryce Miller from last year’s.
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Bryce Miller: “I think that type of stuff is very similar, but the lefty-righty splits are quite a bit different. Last year, lefties batted over .300 against me. This year, it’s around .215. I think the addition of the splitter has been big, and I’ve also been locating better. If you look at the heat maps from last year, a lot of the fastballs were in the middle of the plate. This year, I’ve gotten them [elevated] a little better for the most part. So getting the heaters up and the splitters down has helped me out a lot with the lefties. That’s really been the main thing.”
David Laurila: Why is the splitter so much better than the changeup you were throwing?
Miller: “I really didn’t throw the changeup last year. I mean, the usage was probably only 5%. I also had to drop my [arm] slot to throw the changeup if I wanted any type of horizontal. It just wasn’t a good pitch for me.”
Laurila: What is the story behind your splitter? How did you learn it, and how long did it take to turn it into a quality pitch?
Miller: “It took me pretty much all offseason to get comfortable with it. It’s not an easy pitch. [The] movement isn’t always consistent with the lack of spin and whatnot. From watching Logan [Gilbert] and [George] Kirby throw it last year, I thought it would be a good pitch for me. Again, there was like a .100 point difference in batting-average-against for lefties and righties. I knew that needed to be my main area of focus.”
Laurila: Did Gilbert and Kirby play a role in your splitter outside of you seeing how effective it was for them?
Miller: “I asked both of them how they threw it, but I ended up not using either of their grips. I kind of took [Kodai] Senga’s grip a little bit. It’s like a mix of Senga and [Kevin] Gausman. I have the horseshoe rotated here [on the ring side of the middle finger] and then the other one kind of splits between the lace. I actually found it on a Tread video on YouTube. I kept cutting the regular split grip, and then I saw the video where a guy was showing that grip. He was maybe a little more traditional, whereas I like my pinky and ring finger up. I started throwing it that way and it started to take off.”
Laurila: Has it been more of a swing-and-miss pitch for you, or more of a soft-contact pitch?
Miller: “Early in the season it was close to 40% whiff, but that’s kind of gone down. It’s been my best weak-contact pitch. When I throw it in finish counts, if they swing it’s usually been a groundball or a weak fly. I think I’ve got to adjust my location with it to get back to getting more swings and misses. Either way, I haven’t given up much damage with it.
“I’ve thrown it close to 25% of the time and have given up one home run — and I don’t really even count it, because it was a weird one. I always preset my splitter, and when I switch to a different pitch I do it the glove. The home run was to Evan Carter, in Texas, in the third week of the season. We had called a different pitch, I switched to a fastball, and then we called splitter again. There was no time left on the pitch clock, and I was like ‘crap.’ I tried to do it in my glove and the pitch just floated in there.”
Laurila: You knew it was a bad pitch before he even swung the bat?
Miller: “Yeah. And it’s the only one I’ve thrown this year where I didn’t preset. I like to have it deep in my hand, and on that one I had to go to it real quick and then throw. The result was a home run. I should have just thrown it for a ball.”
Laurila: Are there any pitches that are more difficult than others when you’re switching grips out of the preset?
Miller: “No. I’ve gotten used to switching to the fastball, or switching to the curveball or sweeper, or whatever. It’s all pretty easy. I just rotate the ball and I’m there. I also do a lot of glove wiggle and keep that to where they can’t pick up on anything.”
Laurila: Is there anything else repertoire-wise we should touch on?
Miller: “I’ve added a knuckle curve. Last game, I didn’t throw it until the sixth inning, and then struck out the side with it. I stole it from Mike Baumann. It’s like a death ball. I was never able to throw a traditional curveball very hard. I’ve got the gyro slider that’s around 2 and -2, but the new one I’ve been throwing has been 85, 86, 87 [mph] down to -8 vert and around zero horizontal. If I keep throwing it, it will be a good breaking pitch to get swings and misses.
“As the year has gone on, with lefties it’s mostly either been splits away or heaters up, so they’re kind of on top of the plate. I think this will be a good pitch to get them off a little bit. But it’s still a work in progress. I added it about three weeks ago, but didn’t really throw too many of them until the sixth inning of that last game.
“I’ve been trying to figure out a breaking pitch that moves glove side that gets swing-and-miss, because the sweeper and the gyro… on Stuff+, I think they’ve always underperformed, especially with whiff. The gyro has been good with results, but it just doesn’t get as much whiff as I’d like. It could be a location thing; I don’t know. The curveball, since it has more depth to it, should get more swing-and-miss.”
Laurila: It can be your new secret weapon to miss bats?
Miller: “Hopefully. I mean, it worked last week. Of course, they couldn’t plan for it, because I hadn’t been throwing it.”
