Padres' Mason Miller dominance creates Craig Stammen's riskiest bullpen temptation

Mason Miller is so good that every tight San Diego Padres game starts screaming for him, and Craig Stammen’s real challenge is not letting that luxury turn into overuse. And with an offense that still struggles to score runs much of the time, close games are pretty common for San Diego.

Through play on May 20, Miller has been otherworldly. He has a 0.79 ERA, which somehow comes with a FIP even lower at 0.33. His xERA is 0.98. He’s been worth 1.4 fWAR, which is more than half of what Cade Smith led all relievers in baseball with last season, but in less than one-third of the season. He’s stranded the tying runner on second with nobody out, blown 104 MPH fastballs past hitters, and pieced together the longest scoreless streak in franchise history at 34.2 innings. He’s the closest thing to an automatic win the Padres have had, and they’ve had some great closers.

The temptation to use Mason Miller every night is strong

Every manager in baseball would love the dilemma that Stammen has. In his first year as manager after taking an unconventional path to the role, he gets to manage with the most dominant reliever on the planet warming up as soon as he picks up a phone. 

The numbers are silly. ESPN looked at some all-time relief seasons a couple of weeks ago and showed that Miller is on pace to shatter the best of the best. He has faced three or more batters and struck them all out in five different outings this season, and they were all in a seven-outing stretch. He’s the only pitcher to ever do that. 

When someone gives up two earned runs in nearly 50 innings, including postseason, every close game starts to whisper his name in the late innings. Reasonable minds this winter wondered if the best way to use Miller wasn’t in the ninth, but in a fireman role. That would be fun, but it might also break him. 

A history Stammen cannot afford to forget

Miller’s body of work has been preceded by his body’s body of work, if that makes any sense. A shoulder injury limited his innings in 2022, and a UCL sprain did the same in 2023. That’s what led the Athletics to move him to the bullpen in the first place. He’s never topped 100 innings in a season, which is fine as a reliever, but it’s important to keep something so valuable healthy. 

He comes by his 104 MPH fastballs honestly, with a delivery that can be considered violent. He throws a lot of sliders, a pitch that generally doesn’t make elbows blow up slower. There’s a reason the A’s made the move they did. And there’s a reason the Padres chose to keep Miller in the ninth rather than convert him to the rotation. He’s too good and probably a bit too fragile to ask for more than the 60 to 70 innings a closer pitches. That’s the line Stammen is walking. The luxury is also a curse. He’s the only one of his kind, and there isn’t an insurance policy, even though the Padres do have some nice Plan B options.

Stammen has already shown some discipline

Give the rookie manager some credit. He has pitched back-to-back days a few times and has not pitched three days in a row. When the math has lined up against him, Stammen has turned over save chances to Jason Adam, Adrian Morejon, and Jeremiah Estrada. 

Even after a tightrope walk against the Dodgers when Miller threw nine balls in his first 10 pitches before pitching coach Ruben Niebla visited the mound and helped him fix a tipped pitch, Stammen left him in only because the inning unraveled too quickly to get anyone else in there. He didn’t yank him to bring in another arm, but also wasn’t feeding him four-out saves just because of a big moment.

Last year’s bullpen was best in baseball by ERA by a lot and the 2026 group is pretty much as deep even without Robert Suarez.

The other arms that need to carry weight

Here’s where the depth matters. The Padres bullpen behind Miller isn’t a collection of leftovers. It’s one of the most loaded supporting casts in baseball.

• Morejon has been the leading non-Miller leverage arm and has already collected a save this season.
• Adam has returned from a brutal injury and has been excellent by ERA, but there is a concern over the lack of strikeouts. 
• Estrada is a swing-and-miss weapon who has handled the late innings before in his career and help in the leverage spots that Stammen might be tempted to go to Miller
• Yuki Matsui, Wandy Peralta, Bradgley Rodriguez, and Ron Marinaccio round out a group that is built specifically to keep the closer fresh. 

The real test is yet to come

April and May are easy. The Padres are healthy enough, and Stammen can preach restraint without having been tested by a long losing streak or a brutal stretch of important one-run games. The real challenge will come in July or August or even September when the rotation hits a hiccup or they have 13 games in 13 days and three save changes stack up in a row. That’s when Stammen either earns or loses the trust of a fan base that has watched closers wear down before.

The good news is that he’s been a reliever himself. Maybe that’s helping him here. He knows how a season feels on a bullpen arm’s elbow in mid-August. He knows what warming up in the eighth three days in a row can do to someone. If anyone is built to resist the temptation of leaning on Miller too often, it’s the manager who used to be a setup guy. 

The Padres didn’t acquire Miller to use him 80 times in the regular season. They acquired him to use him in October. It’s tempting for Stammen to use him more to help them get there, but he has to be careful to ensure that his best is still there for the biggest outs.

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