Mariners’ Bryce Miller explains why he pitched through elbow trouble

Jun 6, 2025, 10:15 AM

Editor, Seattle Sports

The first two months of the 2025 MLB season were the toughest Bryce Miller has seen since he joined the Seattle Mariners’ rotation as a rookie in 2023.

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In 56 career starts entering this season, Miller had 27 quality starts of at least six innings pitched with three earned runs or less allowed, including 18 out of 31 starts in 2024. But in eight starts to open this year, not only was Miller still without a quality start, but he had yet to throw six innings in any game.

The issue? The right-hander’s throwing elbow. Thankfully not the front part of the elbow where an injury to the UCL – and the Tommy John surgery that commonly repairs it – would be a concern, but with the 26-year-old Miller sitting at a 5.22 ERA after a loss to Toronto on May 11, it was time for him to rest and hopefully let the problem calm down.

After a stint on the 15-day injured list, Miller returned to the Mariners on May 31, throwing 71 pitches over four innings against the Minnesota Twins. And while he’s still going to need some time to get back to full strength, he told Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob on Thursday that he feels like the rest is paying off.

“It was good to be back. It’s not fun sitting around for 16 or 18 days or whatever it was,” he told hosts Dave Wyman and Bob Stelton in the Mariners dugout right after the end of the team’s most recent homestand. “I’m used to throwing every five or six days, so it gets boring not throwing. It was good to be back. Elbow feels a whole lot better than it did before, so that’s the main thing and looking forward to the next one tomorrow.”

That next one is Friday’s series opener in Anaheim against the Angels, which is the first game of a six-game road trip that will also go through Arizona.

Miller detailed how he feels different after his time on the injured list.

“You’re not always going to feel 100% throughout the season, but it was just I think I had eight starts and all eight there wasn’t a single start where I felt 90%,” he said. “And so I think it just came to a point where physically I wasn’t feeling good and then that was leading to poor results, which was not easy to deal with mentally as well. I kind of used the the 15 days as a physical reset, but also mentally, kind of just coming back and feeling like I have a fresh start. My body feels fresh, and mentally clearing it all out and getting after it.”

Why didn’t Miller stop sooner? There were a couple of reasons he pointed to.

“It’s a tough spot to be in because as a starting pitcher, you want to make all 32 starts and you want to get up to around 200 innings and prove to be durable,” he said. “And this wasn’t something that I was like, oh, I’m hurt. It was just something that was, like, consistently nagging and putting me kind of in a hole from the start. And if I restarted the season, I probably would have said something sooner, but to me it was just like I felt like I could pitch and I felt like I could get through it and it would go away on its own, and it just wasn’t going away.

“So that was the main thing. Like, if it would have been improving week to week, or if there was stuff that we could have been doing that would have improved it treatment-wise, then I would have been fine with continuing to throw, but it just wasn’t getting any better.”

The other reason is that Miller wasn’t the only pitcher in Seattle’s rotation dealing with an arm issue at the time. George Kirby began the season on the IL with shoulder inflammation, while Logan Gilbert had an elbow flexor bundle strain that landed him on the IL in late April. Kirby has now made three starts since returning, while Gilbert is through two starts on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma and could be back soon.

“I think it also played into it with Logan and and Kirby being out, like, I wanted to keep throwing and not have three of us down,” Miller said. “I don’t know, I probably should have just taken care of it earlier, but we’re here now so it’s time to go now.”

Miller and the Mariners open their series in Anaheim with a 6:38 p.m. first pitch Friday night. Radio coverage on Seattle Sports will begin at 5:30 with the pregame show.

Catch Wyman and Bob from 2-7 p.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.