The list of reasons why you should watch the Oakland A’s this season pretty much starts and ends with Mason Miller.
Simply put, the 25-year-old closer is absolutely nasty.
Miller’s fastball-slider combo is one of the best in the league and it’s not even that much of an argument. He ranks in the 100th percentile across MLB in expected ERA, expected batting average, fastball velocity, strikeout rate, whiff percentage and hard-hit percentage.
Which is all just a fancy way of saying this dude throws straight gas and makes even the best hitters look silly.
So you’d think with all the success he’s having, the Athletics would join the growing trend of epic entrances for closers that’s swept across baseball. Except it hasn’t, of course, for the most Oakland of reasons.
Accord to Miller during an appearance with Foul Territory, the team told him if they tried to turn off the lights at the Oakland Coliseum, they might not be able to get them back on.
"We talked about the lights – I don't think that's gonna happen … they said the lights might not come back on." 🤣😂
Mason Miller talks about crafting his custom closer entrance in Oakland
▶️ https://t.co/WHnqz2gNpF pic.twitter.com/69wrKJUP2Q
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) May 3, 2024
This is just so crushing. Imagine being Miller, going toe-to-toe with the likes of Edwin Diaz, Felix Bautista or Jhoan Duran but not event getting a third of the same treatment.
The A’s need to figure something out here, even if they refuse to spend a single dollar on a stadium fix. Maybe they could bring back bullpen cars and have Miller pull up to the mound in a Maserati. Literally anything to show that this is no regular A’s arm taking the mound.
After all, this is Oakland. Who knows how many times they’ll even get to use their closer this year? Each Mason Miller appearance is a gift. It’s time the A’s treat them that way.
