Like what you've seen from Taj Bradley so far? Turns out he may have staying power, what with the unfortunate news of Jeffrey Springs needing Tommy John surgery. After a brief return to the minors, Bradley was back Tuesday with an even better performance than in his debut last week, striking out nine over 5 1/3 shutout innings.
But who's this Mason Miller guy getting so much buzz all of a sudden? If you don't know, there's a good reason for it. Even as someone who produces oodles of prospect content for CBS, I wasn't all that familiar with him prior to, oh, a week ago.
We'll get into what his impending arrival means for Fantasy Baseball, but for now, the top priority off the waiver wire is Bradley.
Possible waiver wire pickups
So much for Taj Bradley being one-and-done. His return to Triple-A Durham was merely a layover on his trip to Cincinnati, where he looked even more impressive than during his debut against the Red Sox last week, collecting three or more whiffs on each of his fastball, cutter and changeup. Between the two starts, he now has 17 strikeouts to just two walks in 10 1/3 innings. The Rays might yank him earlier than we'd prefer at times, but Bradley, a consensus top-25 prospect with a career 2.66 ERA in the minors, looks poised to take off. And since he's obviously going to stick around with Jeffrey Springs being lost for the season, he might be the most attractive pitcher pickup off the waiver wire so far.
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Mason Miller has thrown all of 28 2/3 innings in his professional career. But oh, how he's thrown, missing bats at a clip that shouldn't be attainable by mere mortals. His swinging-strike rate in six starts last year was 23 percent, and in two starts this year, it's 26 percent. That's unheard of. Two years ago, a then-unknown Spencer Strider was blowing my mind with a 21 percent rate. Miller's last outing -- in which he struck out 11 over five perfect innings -- was so impressive that the Athletics decided to bring him up to start Wednesday. As little as he's pitched, it's likely he doesn't take on anything close to a full workload right away, but then, we were saying similar things about Strider a year ago. Sometimes the mystery box is better than a boat, and this one has that feel to it.
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One of the great frustrations of 2023 so far is how two-faced every pitcher has been, almost like the shift ban or some other change to the environment has dialed up the volatility such that every shaky start has the potential to spiral out of control. But Cabrera's wounds have been self-inflicted -- i.e., issuing a combined 13 walks in his first two starts. He showed us the other side of the coin Wednesday, piling up 21 swinging strikes in a quality start against the Giants. He leaned heavily on his changeup, throwing it 47 percent of the time, and fading his fastball may help to keep him under control. As many whiffs as his changeup and curveball are capable of generating, the control hurdle is the only one he needs to clear
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With the way he impacts the baseball, Jorge Soler always seems like he should be better than he is. And there have been times when his best version has shown up, like during his 48-homer 2019 and his half-season with the Braves just two years ago. In fact, there was some hope that his success with the Braves would carry into last year, but a back issue derailed things pretty early on. Now healthy, he's once again looking like his best self, with his Statcast page all lit up in red like Yordan Alvarez's. The premium exit velocities are nothing new, but Soler's expected stats -- a .304 xBA and .714 xSLG -- are more befitting of them. And the actual stats are catching up. A 3-for-4 performance Tuesday raised his batting average to .263 to go along with a .972 OPS.
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We've had to dance around the issue with save opportunities being so scarce for the Marlins, but after his second save in as many days (and third overall), I'm ready to say A.J. Puk is the closer. Every one of his seven appearances has been to finish out a game, and he's never once entered prior to the ninth inning. And while the Marlins may not make for ample save chances, Puk is a better reliever than they've tried in the role in recent years, a hard-throwing lefty with a genuine swing-and-miss arsenal. Manager Skip Schumaker telegraphing the role so plainly makes it easy to invest in Puk at a time when so many bullpens offer so much uncertainty.
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Jose Alvarado picked up his first save Tuesday, with earlier closer favorites Craig Kimbrel and Seranthony Dominguez working the seventh and eighth innings. It doesn't mean Alvarado is the closer now, but it does mean he's in the running to close and perhaps even the favorite. By performance, he certainly deserves to be. He's always been a big bat-misser, but 18 strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings is on another level. Most impressive is that he hasn't walked anyone yet, showing better control than at any other point in his career. Alvarado has long been touted as a prospective closer even going back to his Rays days, and now that the Phillies have another high-leverage lefty in Gregory Soto, they may be more open to the idea. If so, the returns could be huge.
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