Whenever Mason Miller would enter the game for the San Diego Padres, opposing batters must have been saying their prayers. After all, they need some divine intervention to get a hit off of Miller, let alone string together enough baserunners to score a run. In 2026, Miller put up his best season yet, and he was rewarded with his first NL Reliever of the Year award as a result.
Miller, in 2026, put up an ERA of 1.67 in 66 appearances spanning 70.0 innings. He saved 38 games for the Padres and he blew away opposing hitters in the process — striking out a total of 129 batters during his time on the mound.
And the Padres closer reacted to his latest milestone with the demeanor only the most composed reliever in the big leagues has, as he wasn't overly excited and looked very chill as the guys over at MLB Network interviewed him.
This is the kind of even-keeled demeanor that allows Miller to be at his best even though the game is almost always on the line whenever he makes his way to the mound. He's almost a cyborg that the Padres deploy to guarantee victories, and he's similar to a high-velocity pitching machine considering he throws over 101 miles per hour on his four-seamer on a regular basis.
The Padres traded away one of the best prospects in the minor leagues in Leo de Vries just to bring Miller in, and it's safe to say that Miller has been as good as advertised. And the good news is that Miller has three more years left of team control, so San Diego should have the luxury of having one of the best late-game pitchers in MLB for the foreseeable future.
San Diego has to do a better job, however, of building a more solid starting rotation so they can more consistently hand over leads to the safe arm of Miller.