‘It’s Almost Scary’: Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley Weighs in on A’s Star Closer, Pittsburgh Native Mason Miller in PBN Exclusive
Dennis Eckersley is one of the greatest closers in baseball history.
The Hall of Famer ended his career with 390 saves— good for ninth all-time— and would have had a lot more if not for the fact that he was a starting pitcher for his first 12 seasons.
The height of Eckersley’s career came in 1992, when he won the AL Cy Young and MVP award.
In the 30-plus years since, only one closer (Eric Gagne in 2003) has won a Cy Young and none have won MVP. Eckersley did most of his damage for the Oakland A’s and his number 43 jersey is one of six the franchise has retired inside Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
This season will be the last one the A’s spend in Oakland and thus the last year of baseball in the Coliseum. The team will be moving to Sacramento, where it will play from 2025-27, then going to Las Vegas from there on out, so this 2024 A’s season will be a historic one.
The last team calling the Coliseum home isn’t near the level of the best teams Eckersley played on, when the A’s made three straight World Series appearances from 1988-90 and won it all in ‘89.
But what the ‘24 A’s have in common with those teams is a dominant closer.
Mason Miller began his MLB career as a starting pitcher.
Oakland’s 2021 third-round draft pick made his MLB debut last April and showed promise through four starts before getting injured.
The injury kept Miller from “The Show” until September, and he took on a different role upon his return. In his last six appearances, Miller never through more than three innings, either being used as an opener and starting a game before leaving after pitching a limit amount of innings or coming out of the bullpen.
The A’s named Miller their closer for 2024, and so far, his first full MLB season has been electric.
As of Monday, Miller has converted eight of eight save opportunities. He’s allowed two runs over 19.2 innings, good for a 1.35 ERA, has a WHIP below one and strikes out an astronomical 18.9 batters per nine innings.
Perhaps the most impressive stat of all is Miller’s FIP.
FIP stands for Fielding Independent Pitching, AKA what a pitcher’s ERA would be based on stats that pitchers themselves, not their defense, can control.
Miller’s FIP is -0.14. That’s right. It’s negative.
Eckersley hadn’t seen Miller pitch in person before Tuesday night, and Pittsburgh Baseball Now couldn’t confirm whether he stayed for the ninth inning of Oakland’s 5-2 win, which concluded with Miller striking out the side in order for Save No. 8.
But Eckersley was there for the start of the game, and told PBN what Miller can do is “almost scary.”
“I mean, you don’t want to get carried away, but how could you not with how he throws,” Eckersley said. “If he can command, he can dominate.”
Eckersley watched Miller’s last save before Tuesday on TV.
With the A’s leading the Orioles 3-2 in Baltimore going onto the Bottom of the 10th, Miller entered the game and, by rule, had to do it with the Orioles having a man on second and nobody out.
Miller retired the side in order, ending with a strikeout of Gunner Henderson, and he was visibly pumped up after that strikeout, and Eckersley noticed that emotion.
He also watched one of Miller’s saves against the Yankees earlier in the week and noted Miller’s strikeout of one of the game’s most talented hitters, Juan Soto.
“Punched out Soto,” Eckersley said. “Just blew him away.”
Eckersley also remembers watching Miller’s best start in the majors.
In his third big league outing, Miller threw seven no-hit innings, but was pulled afterward due to pitch count (he’d thrown 100).
Miller made one more start before heading to the IL, and there’s no saying if or when he’ll make another one.
Eckersley knows a bit about making the transition from the rotation to the bullpen, albeit he did it at a much later stage in his career than where Miller is now.
Eckersley isn’t quite sure where Miller’s talents would work best, but feels that Oakland has a good thing going as currently constructed.
“I don’t even know what I would do with him,” he said. “I don’t know what my advice would be for him.”
“Before, it would be ‘how much money could I make,’ right? Could I make more as a starter or a reliever? I’ll tell you what, if he does what he’s doing right now, I think that’s where he should be until he does otherwise.”
Miller is only 25 and hasn’t yet pitched a full big league season, but it didn’t take long for him to impress a legend.
“It’s great to watch somebody like that.” said Eckersley.
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