How a 2 -time Cy Young winner could help Bobby Miller reach new heights for Dodgers

Phoenix – When the Los Angeles Dodgers sent shock waves throughout the sport last November, a promising part of their future led to Instagram. Bobby Miller did not know Blake Snell at all, but the mutual admiration went beyond only jokes when Miller wrote a direct message to the two -time winner of Cy Young and his new teammate. While Miller welcomed the last addition of the Dodgers star, someone he admired, Snell’s response was simple.

“Let’s get it.”

Miller suffered a miserable season in 2024. His shoulder hurt. His mechanics fell from Whack. At the end of the season, a team struggling to start launching it considered it unable to maintain a place in its postseason rotation. A year after being the head of game 2 of the Dodgers, the team won the World Series without Miller on the postseason list for any series.

Even so, Snell always admired law. He saw a quiet, curious and talented pitcher who had not taken advantage of his ability. Snell signed at some point around Thanksgiving and not long after that met Miller in person. Its connection has become an early conversation point for manager Dave Roberts, even in the middle of a camp full of stars for reigning champions.

“I can see it in the way you look at the game, see the game,” Snell said about Miller. “I see how he wants to be great. I see that in many of those things. “

The Bobby Miller’s faceful batters. Blake Snell is watching with Mark Prior. Miller has apparently lean on his new teammate this spring. pic.twitter.com/jwtpwzrqu6

– Fabian Ardaya (@fabianardaya) February 15, 2025

Then, while they crossed while working together this winter in Arizona at the facilities of the Dodgers, Snell warned Miller who would be linked to his side all the spring.

“That fired me a little,” said Miller. “Coming from a guy like him, twice Cy Young winner. … He has been taking me under his wing, so I’m really grateful. “

When Snell requested his position on the locker, he wanted him next to Clayton Kershaw’s, and next to Miller. Kershaw saw Snell’s first Bullpen session as a Dodger, the head with three Cy Young awards anxious to observe the guy with two. A few days later, it was Snell’s turn to look at Miller. Snell was there in a hoodie, tracksuit and sneakers, next to the launch coaches Mark Prior and Connor McGuiness behind Miller while facing the batters. After the session, Snell approached and advised the right of 25 years, and pointed out that he had seen him express frustration after a pair of rapid balls thrown and advising him to control him.

“We’ve been talking about little things,” Miller said.

So many little things accumulated for Miller this time a year ago. A promising rookie campaign and a tempting package of size (6 feet 5, 220 pounds), premium speed and a diverse arsenal had apparently positioned Miller for a jump to stardom. His debut in the season seemed to support that notion, with Miller gathering the best performance of his career with 11 strikeouts in six goals against St. Louis.

But his shoulder hurt, an outbreak after the early start of the Dodgers in the season in Korea in March. He took two miserable beginnings through pain for Miller to land on the injured list. He never got just after. The pain in his shoulder led to a bad mechanics in his delivery. The cascade effect hit its command and speed. After sitting regularly near triple digits with an average fast ball speed of 99 mph as a rookie, that figure fell to 97.6 mph a year ago. The tone does not generate swing-And-fish as it is, and became much more hittable, and put into bad points, along with the loss of a pair of veil ticks.

Even when the Dodgers rushed by the headlines, Miller came out of the rotation. It was sent to the minors forever in September, after having registered an effectiveness of 8.52 in 13 openings that occupied the last place among the 170 headlines with at least 50 tickets released. For the Aguraphs War, only two starting pitchers were worse than last year that Miller (-0.9 FWar): Roddery Muñoz de Miami (-1.6) and Triston McKenzie de Cleveland (-1.0).

“It was not fine,” Miller said on the shoulder, that Dodgers have repeatedly emphasized this winter now is healthy. “Obviously I didn’t need surgery or anything. But he didn’t feel good.

“At the end of the day, he was physically capable of launching, so there is no excuse that he can do. Only the bad execution of my part is what is really reduced and does not have my normal mixture and command that I had the previous year. “

Miller said a winter of physiotherapy and rest rejuvenate his shoulder. His mechanics seems to be in a better place, and with him, the speed has recovered. More than anything, he said, he obtained a mental restart, a mentality that Snell retreated.

“I don’t live in the past,” said Snell. “He shouldn’t either. Last year, you learn and then concentrate on what you are doing. You will learn. It is such an incredible talent. I don’t ask what he did last year because I don’t care. I think what is going to do is much more important than what happened. Learn from him, improve, whatever it was bad and this year is this year. Get ready for it. “

Much has changed in the last 12 months, his new teammates among them. It is expected that Snell anchors a rotation that explodes in the seams in talent but full of interrogation signs. The winner of two effective titles is expected to carry the load, but it is not as if Miller was well positioned to be among the names behind him at this time.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto is ready to have the assignment of the opening day. Roki Sasaki, Japan’s rookie right, is expected to do so in the opening series of the season in Tokyo. Tyler Glasnow is considered to have a clean health bill after the elbow problems cost him a postseason race and they are still paid for being a first -line headline. The decision to execute a rotation of five men before the return of Shohei Ohtani of a second elbow surgery essentially faces Tony Gonsolin and Dustin can among themselves in their respective returns of the injury.

That leaves little space on paper for Miller.

“We all know how talented it is Bobby, but Bobby has to be good,” Roberts said. “It has to be healthy and has to act.”

That has made Miller’s link with Snell encouraging.

“I think Blake is taking advantage of the mental side of that (with Bobby), and there is no much more powerful thing that can come from a guy who has won Cy Youngs,” Roberts said. “I am sure that some of the messages are good, they care about yourself and when the time comes, get ready.”

(Photo of Bobby Miller: Joe Camporeale / Imagn images)