{"id":67721,"date":"2024-03-05T20:48:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T01:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=67721"},"modified":"2024-03-05T20:48:53","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T01:48:53","slug":"padres-sign-brad-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/05\/padres-sign-brad-miller\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres Add Veteran Depth by Signing This Journeyman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The San Diego Padres <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/03\/03\/best-trades-mlb-offseason\/\" target=\"_self\">lost a lot of talent<\/a> this winter and did not have the resources to make quality replacements. One way to try filling many holes inexpensively is by acquiring versatile players. That&#8217;s exactly what they did on Tuesday, as reports indicate that the Padres will sign <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=millebr02,miller024bra,miller023bra&amp;search=Brad+Miller&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-05_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brad Miller<\/a> to a minor league deal. AJ Cassavell of MLB.com broke the news.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Some news: The Padres have signed longtime infielder Brad Miller to a Minor League deal with an invite to big league camp. A lefty hitter, he&#8217;s expected to vie for a bench spot.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 AJ Cassavell (@AJCassavell) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AJCassavell\/status\/1765108022932910532?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 5, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>San Diego Padres Sign Brad Miller<\/h2>\n<p>The veteran will compete for a bench role on a Padres team that lacks significant depth. While Miller has seen time all over the diamond throughout his career, the Friars will likely utilize him mostly as a pinch hitter, DH, or in left field. He can also play both corner infield positions, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/machama01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-05_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Manny Machado<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/croneja01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-05_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jake Cronenworth<\/a> likely have those spots locked up, barring injury.<\/p>\n<p>Miller&#8217;s career-best stretch came from 2019-2021. During this time, Miller produced a 115 OPS+ with a .812 OPS and 40 homers. Miller excelled as a hitter who drew walks and hit for power. He provided great offensive value despite striking out a lot and not hitting for average. Miller seemed to fit the role of part-time slugger against righties very well.<\/p>\n<p>Miller parlayed this success into to a two-year, $10 million deal with the Texas Rangers. However, he failed to keep up his peak production. In two years with Texas, he appeared in only 108 games and produced a 71 OPS+. It makes sense that the Padres will sign Miller to only a minor league deal with a chance to compete for a spot.<\/p>\n<h3>Miller&#8217;s Fit On The Roster<\/h3>\n<p>As currently constructed, the Padres position player group is incredibly top-heavy. San Diego&#8217;s projected starters at DH and center field, plus its bench, features a bevy of inexperienced players. While top prospect <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=merril000jac&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-03-05_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jackson Merrill<\/a>, currently the projected DH starter, excites fans, he likely needs more minor-league seasoning.<\/p>\n<p>Even at 34, a healthy Miller represents an upgrade over what the Padres currently have in-house. If he stays healthy this spring, Miller should be able to make the team and provide needed veteran depth.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The San Diego Padres lost a lot of talent this winter and did not have the resources to make quality replacements. One way to try filling many holes inexpensively is by acquiring versatile players. That&#8217;s exactly what they did on Tuesday, as reports indicate that the Padres will sign Brad Miller to a minor league [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4683,"featured_media":67735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,1071,35],"tags":[1655,3333,43],"class_list":["post-67721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-padres","category-mlb","category-news","tag-brad-miller","tag-jake-cronenworth","tag-manny-machado"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}