This is to tide us over until David Ortiz accepts arbitration tonight or tomorrow and the Boston Red Sox hopefully trade for Oakland closer Andrew Bailey. Today, the Sox signed left-handed pitcher Andrew Miller to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract for the 2012 season.
The team avoided salary arbitration with Miller and who knows, in Spring Training he might get a chance to earn a spot in the back of the rotation. Miller's contract is worth $1.04 million. He would receive an additional $50,000 if he makes 20 starts and another $50,000 if he makes 25 starts.
Before you get too excited, let's remember how much of a project the former first-round pick appeared to be last season.
Miller appeared in 17 games with the Red Sox in 2011, including 12 starts, and went 6-3 with a 5.54 ERA with 50 strikeouts in 65 innings. The left-hander allowed three runs or fewer in eight of his 12 starts and Boston was 9-3 in those outings. However, Miller's production fell off a cliff late in the season. His ERA in the 7-20 September was 11.70, the highest for a Sox pitcher with at least 10 innings pitched in the post-World War II era.
Miller was signed by the Red Sox as a minor league free agent prior to the 2011 campaign, he also pitched in 17 games (12 starts) with Triple-A Pawtucket last season, going 3-3 with a 2.47 ERA with 61 strikeouts in 65 2/3 innings, holding opponents to a .181 batting average (42-for-232).
He's cheap which is good but other than that, who's to say if he'll ever truly pan out. Miller throws hard but he really struggles with his control. When it looked like he might have turned the corner in the AL East in August, he had a nightmare of a September, along with the rest of his mostly loser teammates.
Daniel Bard, Miller's teammate at the University of North Carolina as well, said that he would welcome a spot in the rotation but I beg the Red Sox to think twice about that. They still need a closer, they don't need to start looking for a setup man too. Unless you're a No. 1 or 2 starter-which Bard wouldn't be on this team-there is no need to switch up a guy's role.
Some more ugly numbers for Miller: his 1.82 WHIP was the second-worst in the AL for pitchers with over 60 innings (Mitch Talbot, 1.85). Miller has been with three MLB teams in six seasons and the former first-round's pick has a career ERA of 5.79.
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