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Milwaukee Brewers sign Shelby Miller to minor league deal

By Tyler Roberts

DETROIT, MI - JUNE 25: Shelby Miller #19 of the Texas Rangers after giving up a two-run home run to Ronny Rodriguez of the Detroit Tigers during the ninth inning at Comerica Park on June 25, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. The Rangers defeated the Tigers 5-3. (Photo by Duane Burleson/Getty Images)
DETROIT, MI - JUNE 25: Shelby Miller #19 of the Texas Rangers after giving up a two-run home run to Ronny Rodriguez of the Detroit Tigers during the ninth inning at Comerica Park on June 25, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. The Rangers defeated the Tigers 5-3. (Photo by Duane Burleson/Getty Images) /
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The Milwaukee Brewers announced the signing of starting pitcher Shelby Miller to a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Camp.

This seems like the right play for the Milwaukee Brewers to sign Shelby Miller. He hasn’t been good the last several years and signing him to a minor league deal really mitigates the risk. If he plays well and makes it to the big league club, that is the best-case scenario.

MIller has fallen out of form the last several years. I remember when my Arizona Diamondbacks traded for him and he was supposed to be a great addition to the pitching rotation. The problem is he never turned into that guy.

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His career numbers are as follows: 38-56 with a 4.11 ERA and 622 strikeouts over the course of 8 seasons. He really fell off the wagon when he was traded to the D-backs as in the four seasons before with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Atlanta Braves, the highest his ERA reached was 3.74.

In the four years to follow, he has posted ERA’s of 6.15, 4.09, 10.69 and 8.59 respectively. Not exactly the kind of numbers you are looking for in a starter your team just signed. The brilliant part of this signing is the Milwaukee Brewers hardly have any risk.

If he returns to his early-career form, that’s wonderful and they have added a quality pitcher to an unproven starting rotation. If he continues down his path, the team can simply DFA him and cut their losses early with him.

For Miller’s sake, I hope he can return to that form which earned him an All-Star nod in 2015 with a 3.02 ERA despite losing 17 games that season.

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The D-back fan in me warns Milwaukee to be cautiously optimistic because I was there just a few seasons ago and the Miller experiment was not a good one.

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