Phillies boost bench by acquiring infielder Brad Miller from Yankees
By John Town
The Phillies made a move to boost a dreadful bench, sending cash considerations to the Yankees for infielder Brad Miller.
Todd Zolecki of MLB.com and other beat writers reported Thursday evening that the Phillies acquired infielder Brad Miller from the Yankees for cash considerations. They stated that Miller will join the team’s bench for the weekend series against the Braves.
Miller started the year with the Indians but only played 13 games with them before being released despite putting up decent numbers. He had a .742 OPS and 99 wRC+ during his brief stint there, yet the Indians designated him for assignment, even with other players on the team faring far worse offensively.
The Yankees signed Miller April 22, and he has played in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre since then. In 41 games, he had a .294/.399/.596 line with ten home runs and 29 runs batted in.
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Miller’s best season came back in 2016 with the Rays when he hit 30 home runs and was worth 2.3 Fangraphs wins above replacement. His numbers dropped off considerably in 2017 with just nine home runs and a .664 OPS and only improved somewhat last year.
Miller doesn’t offer too much defensively with poor numbers at pretty much every position he has played.
He has experience at every position besides catcher and pitcher, so that’s a plus, but he won’t be winning many games with his glove.
Even with his average offensive numbers, Miller still serves as a massive upgrade to an unproductive bench. As a group, they are hitting just .213 with 15 extra-base hits all season per Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Phil Gosselin and Sean Rodriguez are the only bench infielders on the team with Scott Kingery playing center field every day. Gosselin is hitting just .245 with a .260 on-base percentage and Rodriguez isn’t much better at .250.
In addition to Miller, Roman Quinn is expected to return for the Braves series as well according to Breen. Replacing Gosselin and Rodriguez with Quinn and Miller makes the bench a lot more formidable, at least until Quinn inevitably gets injured again.
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If Miller hits like he did to begin the season with the Indians, he instantly becomes the best player on Philadelphia’s bench. Even if he doesn’t perform as advertised, it’s not like he cost the team much to acquire.