Baltimore Orioles outbid Detroit Tigers for RP Andrew Miller
By Ed Carroll
The Baltimore Orioles, who are squaring off with the Detroit Tigers in the ALDS, outbid the Tigers to acquire Andrew Miller during the season.
The Detroit Tigers’s bullpen woes are now bordering on the ironic. The Detroit Tigers suffered a full-implosion of their bullpen in the eighth inning yesterday and allowed seven runs (six earned) in two-thirds of an inning pitched in Game One of the ALDS against the Baltimore Orioles. In Game One, the Orioles’ Andrew Miller gave up a walk but didn’t allow a hit and struck out three in an inning and two-thirds, giving Baltimore the breathing room it needed to make the comeback.
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The irony is, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, Detroit Tigers’ general manager Dave Dombrowski thought he had acquired Miller at the trade deadline this season. He met the Boston Red Sox’s asking price, but his offer was trumped at the figurative last minute by Baltimore, who agreed to include pitching prospect Eduardo Rodriguez. Miller was having a good season with the Red Sox with a 2.34 ERA, but has been lights-out for the birds since he was picked up on July 31. He has a 1.35 ERA in 20 innings pitched and he allowed just eight hits with the Orioles, only walking four. The Detroit Tigers, of course, drafted Miller with the sixth-overall pick in 2006 as a starting pitcher. Miller was the top prospect sent to the then-Florida Marlins in the Miguel Cabrera deal in December of 2007.
Trading away a young pitching prospect for a reliever is usually a horrible idea, particularly for a rental such as Miller who will be a free agent after the season. However, in the immediate future, it has been paying off in spades for Baltimore, both in terms of Miller’s performance for the Orioles and when you look at the destruction left in the wake of the Detroit Tigers’ relievers. Sherman is likely spewing hyperbole when he says Miller was the Game One MVP, but it’s hard not to look at the Detroit Tigers’ bullpen and wonder if Dombrowski had been able to acquire Miller at the deadline, would the Tigers would still be facing elimination entering game three? This could turn out to be one of the more interesting “What If?” footnotes to the 2014 season.
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