MLB: Which young pitchers could be the next Andrew Miller?

In the 2016 postseason, the Cleveland Indians rode the relief work of Andrew Miller to a revolution in how teams are looking at young arms. Who could be the next MLB arms to fill that role?

From the time that Tony LaRussa began structuring his bullpens with match up relievers and one-inning closers, the build of a bullpen has changed drastically. Many older fans (or fans of less pitching changes) hearken for the days of power-armed relievers who could handle 2-3 innings when called upon, dominating the opposition’s lineup.

When Andrew Miller moved into the bullpen with the Boston Red Sox in 2012, he immediately saw his career take an upswing. He was the hottest item on the 2014 midseason trade market, and after continuing his dominance for a season with the Yankees, he was traded in 2016 at the midseason mark to Cleveland, who immediately altered how the reliever would be used. No longer would he be a guy who would come out to throw just one inning at a time, sometimes 2-3 days per week. Instead, he would be used 1-2 times per week, but for multiple innings, building him up for a playoff run when Miller was the ALCS MVP along the way to throwing 10 postseason games, pitching 19 1/3 innings, and posting a 1.40 ERA and 0.88 WHIP along with a crazy 5/30 BB/K ratio.

This season has seen a few teams adopt somewhat of a similar strategy as the Houston Astros have employed Chris Devenski in a similar manner, the Chicago Cubs have effectively used Mike Montgomery as a fill-in starter when he’s not being used in a similar way out of the bullpen, the Dodgers have sent out Ross Stripling in a familiar way, and the Arizona Diamondbacks were utilizing both Archie Bradley and Randall Delgado in that manner for quite some time this season.

So who could be the next pitchers to dominate a postseason in this manner? First, we should look at what exactly we’re looking for when reviewing the pitchers who make good candidates.

Pseudo Requirements

Many former top relievers are “failed” starters, so that’s not exactly a requirement, but in the cases of most of the players who have succeeded in this role, their value as a starter was not completely lost, but due to an issue with maintaining health or keeping their delivery over 5 innings, starting became clear as not the future path.

With most of the guys this works best for, the commonality is height. Part of that issue with keeping consistent mechanics is that it occurs very frequently with pitchers who are 6’6″ or taller. Miller is 6’7″, and while none of the guys mentioned previously are THAT tall, none is shorter than 6’3″ either.

Last, but not least, a dominant secondary pitch to go with a fastball that plays up in short bursts. Miller’s is his sweeping slider, but it could be a killer change up or a nasty split finger or a knee-buckling curve. Whatever it is, the pitch tends to get a load of strikeouts at the minor league level.

So let’s take a look at some of the young pitchers who could be filling this role in the near future, starting with one who is getting his feet wet in the role already…