The Seattle Mariners starting rotation will report to Spring Training on Feb. 12 with high expectations after an incredible 2024.
The Mariners rotation led the league in overall quality starts and was the only staff that had four pitchers start 30 or more games. All five hurlers also finished with ERAs below 3.70.
With how great the rotation was in 2024, it’s hard to imagine how much better the encore could be in 2025. But the expectations are high. And one pitcher was recently named a top 100 player going into next season by MLB Network.
MLB Network released the players ranked 100-81 in their Top 100 Right Now series. The series is a continuation of their Top 10 Right Now program, where they rank the top 10 players at every position according to “The Shredder” model. The Shredder takes into account past performances and normal and advanced statistics.
In the first reveal of the the list, Seattle starting pitcher and Texas A&M product Bryce Miller ranked as the 87th-best player in baseball going into his third major league season in 2025.
Other notable players included in Miller’s group of 10 are Luis Arraez, Willson Contreras, Mark Vientos and Lawrence Butler, among others.
Miller had one of the best seasons for a starting pitcher in the majors last year. He had a 2.94 ERA with 171 strikeouts in 180.1 innings pitched across 31 starts. He was also top five in the majors in WHIP (0.98) and opposing batting average (.200).
Miller has one of the most diverse arsenals in the game. He had a put-away rate of 20% or higher on his four-seam fastball (20%), sinker (27.4%) and splitter (21.7%) in 2024 according to Baseball Savant.
Miller’s arsenal might even more dangerous in 2025. He shared video on “X” (formerly known as Twitter) of him throwing a cutter, which clocked in at 87.9 miles an hour with 13.7 inches of vertical movement and -6.7 inches of horizontal movement. Miller only threw the cutter 63 times of 2,749 pitches thrown last season, also according to Baseball Savant.
Miller will likely occupy a spot in the middle of the rotation behind Luis Castillo and/or Logan Gilbert. And if he pitches just as well or better as he did in 2024, it will likely lead to another elite season for the staff.