Mason Miller took himself off the trade block with freak injury that was completely avoidable

There haven't been many bright spots in what has turned out to be another lost season for the now 41-63 Oakland Athletics, but the emergence of Mason Miller has undoubtedly been one of them.

The right-hander took over the closer role in Oakland and ran away with it, posting a 2.21 ERA in 34 appearances and 40.2 innings of work. He has an absurd 70 strikeouts in those innings, fanning 45.8 percent of the batters he has faced thanks in large part to his fastball that averages in the triple digits. He has held the opposition to an eye-popping .146 average.

Obviously it'd be nice if Miller could get more save opportunities, but for all intents and purposes, no reliever has been more dominant this season. His performance earned him a spot on the AL All-Star team, and also brought his name up in trade talks.

With no expectation of Oakland winning anything anytime soon, trading Miller when his value is at its absolute peak sounded really appealing in theory. The A's would've asked for an absurd haul to the point where a deal was not seen likely as of Thursday, July 25, but if a team like the Baltimore Orioles came through with a loaded proposal, something might've happened. MLB fans had reason to dream of a Miller trade, at least.

Unfortunately, the right-hander just suffered an injury at the worst possible time fracturing his left pinkie. That's not his pitching hand, but it still will require an IL stint. Any dreams of Miller getting dealt are now completely dead. Thankfully, he did not intentionally tank his trade value.

I'm awkward when I'm losing, too.

Dreams of a Mason Miller blockbuster vanish following completely avoidable injury

The worst part about this untimely injury is that it was completely avoidable.

What's even crazier about this injury in particular is that it's not easy to identify what happened to Miller. His appearance on Monday saw him retire the side in order on just 11 pitches to secure a 4-0 win over the AL West-leading Houston Astros. His team won, and he pitched well. What's the issue?

Now with this injury occurring five days before the deadline, all hopes of a deadline blockbuster rescuing Miller from John Fisher are gone. A trade was always extremely unlikely due to Oakland having no reason to not sell absurdly high, but not impossible.

Hopefully, since it was his non-pitching hand, Miller can be back sooner rather than later. There's always the offseason, too.