Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has already tipped his hand that Aidan Miller may have a role on the Opening Day roster, and with the way the 22-year-old infielder has been lighting up the Arizona Fall League, it’s easy to see why.
Miller has slashed .327/.557/.481 in 16 games, with 25 walks, 16 strikeouts, and seven stolen bases. He’s also been playing third base, adding positional flexibility to his already well-developed game. Now, he may be asked to add a little more defensive versatility.
According to a report byThe Athletic’s Jim Bowden, Miller is being considered for a super-utility role in 2027, playing both infield and outfield.
It’s a strange situation for both him and the Phillies. Miller is a shortstop by trade; he had only ever played shortstop professionally until taking over third base for the Surprise Saguaros in the AFL this fall. Even in high school, he played solely on the left side of the infield.
Taking up a new position is tough for seasoned veterans, let alone a prospect adjusting to Major League pitching. The Phillies have already asked a top infield farmhand to do this before, and the project didn’t go well.
Aidan Miller isn't being set up for success in Scott Kingery's former role
After a breakout 2017 minor league season, the Phillies signed second baseman Scott Kingery to a six-year, $24 million deal before he had ever set foot on a big-league diamond. They then moved Kingery to shortstop at spring training, having him play there, third base, and left field all on Opening Weekend alone.
The experiment was an immediate disaster; Kingery didn’t have a month in 2018 with an OPS higher than .692 as he bounced from position to position, finishing the campaign with a -2 DRS. Though he had a solid 2019 season, posting a .788 OPS while playing mostly center field and third base, he never got past that shaky 2018.
After seven big-league seasons as a journeyman, the former can’t-miss prospect has a career .659 OPS.
Perhaps Kingery just wasn’t that good. Perhaps the Phillies stunted his development by forcing him out of his comfort zone. More likely, a little bit of both is why Kingery never developed as expected. But the Phillies now have a blueprint for what not to do.
Unlike Kingery, who played there in college, Miller has no prior outfield experience. Starting him at third base—or moving Trea Turner off shortstop and putting Miller there—seems like the obvious move to keep the Phillies' number one prospect developing smoothly.
It’s easy to project right now that the same pitfalls won’t trouble him as they did Kingery. But given the projections for the former $24 million man, many of us in 2017 would have said the same thing about Kingery.
Despite his electric performance at the end of the season with Double-A Reading and in the AFL, Miller is no sure thing. Yes, it’s entirely possible that the positional versatility move works out and Miller adapts to the outfield like a fish to water, but it would surely be safer to target one of the free-agent market’s top players like Randy Arozarena, Teruaki Sato, or Seita Suzuki to start in the outfield.
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