Mason Miller has undoubtedly been the best reliever in baseball this year — he might even be the best pitcher altogether.

Could this be the first season since Eric Gagne won the Cy Young as a reliever in 2003 with the Los Angeles Dodgers?

The flamethrower Miller was acquired by the San Diego Padres during last year’s trade deadline in a deal that sent him and JP Sears to San Diego in exchange for a four-prospect package headlined by Leo De Vries.

The start that Miller has had to the 2026 campaign has been outstanding, and he’s been electric closing out games.

So far across 22.2 innings of work, Miller has only given up two earned runs while striking out 45 batters in the process. He’s converted all 15 of his save attempts — that mark only trails Cade Smith of the Cleveland Guardians (16).

Only nine relievers in major league history have taken home the Cy Young, but if Miller can keep up his unbelievable production, he certainly might have a shot. He currently sits atop all relievers with 1.4 fWAR. The next closest pair is Louis Varland and Cade Smith, who each own a 1.1 fWAR.

Miller’s metrics have been off the charts, with seven placing him in the 100th percentile. His 0.79 ERA might not be real, but the fact that his expected ERA is 0.97 is what’s incredible. It’s an incredible improvement from his career 2.56 ERA.

His FIP is unbelievably good at a current 0.32 mark, which has outpaced his career 2.20 clip. This is as a result of collecting strikeouts at the rate he’s doing it, along with not allowing a home run yet. That first home run allowed might not come for a while since he’s generating ground balls at an incredible 63.6% clip — much higher than the league average 44.2% clip. Only 36.4% of batted balls against him are being hit in the air, which is an astounding place to be.

Miller has been phenomenal in every aspect except his walk rate. While his strikeout rate is over the moon at an incredible 51.7% clip, he’s issuing free passes 10.3% of the time. It’s not the worst mark, but it could use improvement. That’s a part of his game that’s stayed consistent throughout his four seasons, owning a career 10.4% mark.

His below-average walk rate is hard to be concerned about considering Miller’s exceptionally good strikeout rate and the fact that he’s throwing 67% of pitches for strikes. All season long, he’s been in complete control of the at-bat.

As-result of his nasty mix of an 87.8 mph slider and 101.3 mph fastball, opponents have looked silly trying to figure him out. Batters are whiffing at 52.4% of his offerings while chasing 39.4% of the time — both marks ranking in the top second percentile.

A cool comparison is that both his average fastball velocity and opponents’ batted-ball exit velocity average currently rank in the 100th percentile. Miller’s fastball has been sitting at 101.3 mph, with batters only managing 81.7 mph on batted balls.

The remarkable thing is that Miller has yet to allow a barrel thus far. Opponents are only managing a hard-hit rate of 12.1%, putting him in the 100th percentile. Guys he faces are having a really hard time catching up to his fastball and pulling the baseball, hence his excellent 6.1 pull-air%.

Miller’s arsenal this season has been as good as it gets. According to FanGraphs, he owns an overall Stuff+ of 124 and a Location+ mark of 104. This signals that his pitch traits have been 24% better than league average, and have been better than average in the location of his pitches.

San Diego will have an elite closer for years to come as Miller is under club control through the 2029 season. Miller’s production has led the Padres’ bullpen to be one of the best thus far. As a group, they rank seventh in ERA and fourth in K/9. Besides Miller, Jason Adam, Bradgley Rodriguez, and Yuki Matsui, along with some others, have all been solid throughout the first few months of the season.

Cade Lalim

Hi, my name is Cade Lalim. I live in Southern California and I’m a huge baseball fan. I am a senior at Laguna Beach High School and will be attending Irvine Valley College starting in the fall of 2026. My goal is to work in the baseball industry whether that’ll be journalism or with a team. I’m super excited to contribute to San Diego Padres coverage here on East Village Times.