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Imagine the feeling of exhilaration for a big-leaguer who moves from one team to another at the trade deadline and goes from last place to the heat of a pennant race.
And from a tiny minor-league park in West Sacramento to a jewel of a big-league stadium in San Diego.
Naturally, reliever extraordinaire Mason Miller is thrilled with how his career has taken a turn since the July 31 deadline, from the green and gold of the scuffling A’s to the brown and gold of the soaring Padres.
“Playing meaningful baseball games in August and September, that's something that excites me,” said Miller, whose Padres beat the Giants again Tuesday night 5-1 at Oracle Park to move into a first-place tie with the Dodgers, both 68-52. “I’m excited about the upcoming weeks here, as we really get down to it.”
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The latest on the hitting-deprived Giants: They have dropped five straight home series by going 1-12, averaging 1.85 runs a game, and hitting .148 with runners in scoring position. They’re 59-61 on the season and 5 ½ games out of the final wild-card spot. It’s the same listless story every night.
Meantime, the Padres have won 13 of 16, and Miller is digging his new team and enjoying his return to the Bay Area. Before A’s owner John Fisher pulled the team out of Oakland as part of his master plan to relocate to Las Vegas, Miller played two seasons at the Coliseum, making his big-league debut in 2023.
“I saw a couple of Miller jerseys in the stands, so that was cool,” Miller said. “The memories here are special. This won’t compare to playing against your former team, but it’s probably as close as you could get right now.”
The Padres are two games into a 13-game stretch in which they play the Giants and Dodgers on the road and then the Giants and Dodgers at Petco Park, one of baseball’s premier family atmospheres. The Padres average 42,566 fans per game, ranking third behind the Dodgers and Yankees.
It’s a far cry from A’s crowd counts in recent years as Fisher’s focus was on the Strip, not baseball or winning or a once-loyal fan base. In Miller’s three seasons with the A’s, they never were anything but last in the majors in attendance. This year, the A’s rarely sell out in their tiny Sacramento facility.
“Oh, it's awesome,” Miller said of his new home. “Yeah, obviously, a huge switch from where I started my career in terms of attendance. Just seeing that kind of support every single night is special, and that’s kind of what comes with being in a beautiful city with beautiful weather and putting a good baseball product on the field.”
The Padres are so deep that Miller, whose fastball averages 101.2 mph, isn’t even their closer. That role belongs to Robert Suárez, who has earned a majors-high 33 saves. Miller pitched the eighth inning in Monday’s opener and struck out Christian Koss, Drew Gilbert, and Heliot Ramos on 13 pitches.
Along with Miller’s fastball velocity, his strikeout rate (41.5%) and swing-and-miss rate (44.2%) rank in the 100th percentile among big-league pitchers. Miller never got a chance to show his stuff in the playoffs with the A’s but will be must-see once the Padres get to October.
“I think that's part of being on a good team,” said Miller, explaining why he’s embracing his setup role. “One guy's not going to take us where we want to go. It's a group of us, and each day that group could change or morph. The roles and responsibilities each guy has here is to help the team win each day. I think there's a high understanding of that. That's my philosophy. There was no question that was how I was going to treat it.”
Throughout Miller’s time with the A’s, the off-field news always seemed to outweigh any on-field news, even with the impressive mix of young players. In an interview at his Oracle Park locker, Miller took the high road when asked about Fisher and the challenges the players have endured in Oakland and Sacramento, and his respect for his former teammates and gratitude for the opportunity he got reflected in his comments.
“We show up and have a job to do every day, regardless of the variables and outside circumstances,” he said. “We came to terms with it in Sacramento. It wasn't like an excuse or something that we complained about all the time. That was the situation we were in, and we were playing in the big leagues and playing big-league opponents. Each day, that was the mentality we showed up with.
“I mean, it’s a good group of players, good group of coaches. guys that we were excited to see each day on the field, excited to grind with. I think the vision of the team’s future is probably coming into a little bit clearer focus with all the young star players in the making. Ultimately, we wouldn't be where we (were) if we let things like that bother us.
“At the end of the day, it’s not our job to run the team. It's our job to play baseball. I’m sympathetic to the fans of Oakland and a franchise that's spent so much time here. I think that it's a waste for us to sit and harp on that or be angry. I obviously debuted with Oakland, so it holds a special place for me. Yeah, it’s like life goes on.”
In perhaps the most stunning trade at the deadline, the A’s sent Miller and JP Sears to the Padres for four prospects, most notably Leo De Vries, an 18-year-old, switch-hitting shortstop considered one of the most elite prospects in the game.
White the Giants downsized at the deadline — a month and a half after trading for Rafael Devers — Padres GM A.J. Preller went all in on 2025 and made a flurry of deals. Aside from Miller and Sears (who was optioned to Triple-A), the Padres brought in lefty Nester Cortes, who pitched the first 4 ⅔ innings Tuesday, and Ramón Laureano, another former Oaklander who went 2-for-3 and scored twice. Also, Ryan O'Hearn, Freddy Fermín and Will Wagner.
It was quite the heist, and Miller is the headliner with four more years of team control and an epic division race with the Dodgers upcoming. He’s in a good place.