With the Padres coming off a weekend sweep and on a five-game winning streak, it was time to talk about Padres closer Mason Miller on the latest episode of “Baseball Bar-B-Cast.”
“Mason Miller is breaking the sport,” Jake Mintz declared.
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“If you’re angry about the Los Angeles Dodgers and their deep-pocketed ways, well, you should be even more furious about Mason Miller and his mind-bending, law-breaking fastball and his slider.”
The 27-year-old San Diego closer has faced 24 batters so far in 2026. Nineteen of them have struck out. Eighteen of those have struck out swinging. That’s a 79.2% strikeout rate, which would be a record if Miller sustains that over the course of the season. The other five plates appearances against him were a walk, a single (his only hit allowed), a pop-out, a groundout and a flyout.
“He is as automatic as I can remember a pitcher being in one inning in our baseball-watching lives,” Mintz said.
The fastball gets the majority of the attention with Miller, which is understandable considering that he throws it 103 mph. But as the hosts noted, Miller is actually throwing his slider more than his fastball so far this in 2026, and that is making life even more difficult for opposing hitters.
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“Every swing on a slider looks like someone that is gearing up for 103,” Jordan Shusterman explained. “The slider is 87 and has crazy movement, but you just have to imagine in a very simple sense, when you step in the box against Mason Miller, what are you thinking? ‘This guy’s about to throw 104 mph. I have to be ready.’
So hitters are attempting to prepare for Miller’s elite velocity, but then he’s throwing his slider more than his fastball. The result? “Guys are just whiffing in ways that — even the best hitters — you’re not [used to] seeing them miss this badly on these sliders.”
Added Mintz: “He’s making people look like Little Leaguers.”
The hosts also marveled at the fact that Miller pitched for four years at Waynesburg University before playing his final college season at Gardner-Webb.
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“As someone who attended another D3 baseball game yesterday, I cannot — I cannot wrap! — my mind around it,” Shusterman exclaimed of Miller’s career at Waynesburg. “And then he transfers to Gardner-Webb. It’s not like he transferred to LSU.”
From those humble origins, Miller has become, in Mintz’s words, “the most physically imposing, overpowering, dominant arm in the entire sport. And he was playing his freshman baseball games in front of, you know, everyone’s parents and nobody else.
“It is one of the most remarkable things about our sport right now.”
How long can Miller sustain this incredible run? Only time will tell, but in the meantime, he is pitching meaningful innings for a team with its sights set on a postseason run. And that, Mintz and Shusterman agree, is worth your attention.
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“Seeing Mason Miller come out of the bullpen in a packed Petco Park with his intro and a sold-out crowd fits what that guy is at this point in his career,” Mintz said.
“This is as guaranteed have-to-tune-in as we have in the sport right now.”
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