Bryce Miller has improved in his 2023 rookie season with the Seattle Mariners. Most notable are his ERA (3.46 vs. 4.32 last year), FIP (3.70 vs. 3.98) and OPS against opposite-handed hitters (.685 OPS vs. .917). At the same time, many of his numbers were strikingly similar. When I spoke to the 25-year-old right-hander in late July – he’s made two starts since then – his win-loss record and average fastball velocity were identical to last year’s numbers, as were his FB% and HR/FB%. His strikeout rate differed by only a few percentage points.
I pointed out these similarities to the right-hander and then asked him what makes this season’s Bryce Miller different from last year’s.
———
Bryce Miller: “I think that kind of stuff is very similar, but the left-right splits are pretty different. Last year, lefties were hitting over .300 against me. This year, it’s about .215. I think the extra splitter was great, and I’ve also improved my hitting position. If you look at the heat maps from last year, a lot of the fastballs were in the middle of the plate. This year, for the most part, I’ve gotten them a little better. So getting the heaters up and the splitters down has helped me 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 threw?
Mueller: “I really didn’t throw the changeup last year. I mean, the use was probably only 5%. I also had to lower my (arm) slot to throw the changeup if I wanted any kind of horizontal. It just wasn’t a good throw for me.”
Laurel: What’s the story behind your splitter? How did you learn it and how long did it take to turn it into a quality pitch?
Mueller: “It took me almost the entire offseason to get comfortable with it. It’s not an easy throw. (The) movement is not always consistent with the lack of spin and so on. When I watched Logan (Gilbert) and (George) Kirby throw it last year, I thought it would be a good throw for me. Again, there was about a .100 point difference in batting average-again for lefties and righties. I knew that had to be my main focus.”
Laurel: Did Gilbert and Kirby play a role in your split, other than seeing how effective it was for them?
Mueller: “I asked both of them how they threw it, but I ended up not using either of their grips. I adopted a little bit of (Kodai) Senga’s grip. It’s like a mix of Senga and (Kevin) Gausman. I twisted the horseshoe here (on the ring side of the middle finger) and then the other one kind of splits between the tip. I actually found it in a Tread video on YouTube. I kept cutting the normal split grip and then I saw the video where a guy showed this grip. It was maybe a little more traditional, whereas I like my pinky and ring finger on top. I started throwing it like that and it started taking off.”
Laurel: Was it more of a swing-and-miss pitch or more of a soft-contact pitch for you?
Mueller: “At the beginning of the season, it was close to 40%, but that’s gone down a little bit. It was my best weak contact throw. When I throw it in finish counts and they swing, it’s usually a ground ball or a weak fly. I think I need to adjust my position with it to get more swings and misses again. Either way, I didn’t do much damage with it.
“I threw almost 25% of the time and allowed one home run — and I’m not even counting that one because it was a weird one. I always set up my splitter, and when I switch to a different pitch, I do it with the glove. The home run went to Evan Carter in Texas in the third week of the season. We 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 it with my glove, and the pitch just floated in.”
Laurel: You knew it was a bad shot before he even swung the bat?
Mueller: “Yes. And it’s the only pitch this year that I wasn’t prepared for. I like to keep it deep in my hand, and I had to get there really quickly and throw it. It was a home run. I should have just thrown it to get a ball.”
Laurel: Are there pitches that are more difficult than others when changing the preset grip?
Mueller: “No. I’ve gotten used to switching to the fastball or the curveball or sweeper or whatever. It’s all pretty simple. I just spin the ball and I’m there. I also wiggle the glove a lot and keep it so they can’t sense anything.”
Laurel: Is there anything else we should address regarding the repertoire?
Mueller: “I added a knuckle curve. Last game, I threw it in the sixth inning and then I threw the team out with it. I stole it from Mike Baumann. It’s like a death ball. I’ve never been able to throw a traditional curveball very hard. I have the Gyro Slider, which is about 2 and -2, but the new one I threw was 85, 86, 87 (mph) to -8 vertical and about zero horizontal. If I throw it farther, it’s going to be a good breaking pitch to get swings and misses.
“Over the course of the year, lefties have mostly thrown either splits or heater ups, so they’re kind of at the top of the pitch. I think this is a good pitch to get them off of that a little bit. But it’s a work in progress. I added it about three weeks ago, but didn’t really throw many until the sixth inning of the last game.
“I was trying to find a breaking pitch that would move on the glove side and get swing-and-miss, because the sweeper and the gyro… I think they’ve always underperformed on Stuff+, especially on whiff. The gyro has done well, but just doesn’t get as many whiffs as I’d like. It could be the position; I don’t know. The curveball, because it has more depth, should get more swing-and-miss.”
Laurel: It could be your new secret weapon to miss bats?
Mueller: “Hopefully. I mean, it worked last week. Of course, they couldn’t plan it because I didn’t throw it.”
