Mason Miller was named the first winner of the National League Reliever of the Year Award by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, it was announced on Wednesday night.
He received all 30 first-place votes, which two BBWAA writers from each of the 15 NL cities submitted at the close of a regular season. In a dominant season, Miller finished with a 5-2 record, a league-leading 38 saves, 1.76 ERA, 129 strikeouts and 26 walks in 70 innings over 66 appearances.
He had a hand in 47% of the Padres’ 91 victories. He was the Padres’ lone representative to the NL All-Star team and is now their only major award winner.
On winning the award, the 28-year-old Miller, who throws his fastball and slider regularly at over 100 miles per hour, continues a long history of great Padres relievers. No matter how moribund the franchise has been, the Padres have regularly had a leader in that category.
They’ve never won a World Series, but three of their closers are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame — Rollie Fingers, Goose Gossage and Trevor Hoffman. A fourth, Mark Davis, won the NL Cy Young Award in 1989. Otherwise there has been a long progression of great ones: Heath Bell, Huston Street, the recently-retired Kirby Yates, Mark Melancon, Josh Hader and Robert Suarez, who Miller replaced this past season.
“I’m just trying to carry the torch, that’s it really,” Miller said during a conference call on Wednesday night with members of the BBWAA. “I haven’t done a lot in this game compared to those guys. I’m just trying to keep my head down and keep working.”
No reliever has won the Cy Young Award as the best pitcher in either league since Eric Gagne did it for the Dodgers in 2003 when he converted all 55 of his save opportunities and posted a 1.20 ERA with 137 strikeouts in 82 1/3 innings. He converted 84 consecutive save opportunities through July 3, 2004.
Since then, the Cy has been dominated by starters, leading to discussion that relievers needed their own award. The BBWAA established a special committee to study the matter and submitted its findings to the organization, which voted last year to establish a separate award for relievers in each league.
Toronto’s Louis Varland was named the first top reliever in the American League as well Wednesday.
Miller was the most electric reliever in both leagues, if not the most dominant. He was an obvious choice as the NL’s best this past season, beating the likes of Philadelphia’s Jhoan Duran, Milwaukee’s Trevor Megill and his own teammate and setup man Adrian Morejon, who’s now a free agent.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s a privilege,” Miller said. “It’s no secret we have a lot of people who show up every year and compete to be the best. To receive this recognition is something I’m really humbled by.”
It wasn’t an easy season for him by any means. He had his own personal problems to deal with off the field, considering management of his personal Type 1 diabetes and issues at home. His wife, Jordan, was pregnant as the regular season turned toward the playoffs, and he wasn’t available for Game 3 of the NL Division Series against the Brewers as their first child, a son they named Lincoln, was born.
He was placed on the bereavement list in June to deal with a personal matter, and later tearfully revealed during All-Star Game media availability in Philly that his mother had been diagnosed with cancer.
“It’s a marathon every single year and for me this year had a lot of stops along the way,” Miller said. “To look up at the end of the year and despite the way it ended for us and for me personally I was grateful for all things in this life.”
It all seemed to pile up on him as he wasn’t as effective during the final weeks of the season, finally manifesting itself in Game 2 of the NLCS at Milwaukee when he was asked to get the game’s final six outs. He buzzed through the eighth, but then lost the plate in the ninth walking the bases loaded and allowing the game-winning two-run single to Jackson Churio. The Padres lost the best-of-five series in four games to the eventual World Series winning Brewers.
“I thought I was able to work on my consistency, but I saw my consistency falter at the end of the year,” he said. “You and I know how that ended. It’s not going to sit well with me and be something I’m OK with. However success is measured in this game I don’t look at this year as something I’m satisfied with.
“I have stuff I’m going to work on. I’m going to look in the mirror and find out how I can be a better pitcher, a better member of this team and get us to places where we want to go.”
