Elephant Rumblings: Miller inching closer to return

Hello all!

It sounds like prized pitching prospect Mason Miller had another successful outing in his latest rehab outing. With a 30-pitch target, Miller emerged healthy after his fourth rehab outing:

Miller ultimately only pitched one inning, walking two batters but also racking up three strikeouts. He didn’t allow any runs either but the biggest takeaway from it was that he came out feeling healthy. That is huge news, and considering the fears of a torn ligament when he first got hurt, the club must be through the roof with his recovery.

The club just created some room on the 40-man roster yesterday and one of those three open spots have to be earmarked for Miller when he returns. There was some speculation that Miller could be an option sooner than later for the big league club, perhaps even for this weekend series against the division rival Angels. That is evidently not going to be the case though as the club wants one more outing from him in Triple-A.

One has to wonder if he performed better in this recent outing, would the club have thrown caution to the wind and brought him back? If, say, he threw three innings with 6+ strikeouts? Evidently the club wants to see a better performance from Miller before throwing him against major-league hitters. It’s probably for the best, and we’ll likely see Miller sometime next week if he remains healthy. But man. The organization, the players, coaches, and especially fans are excited to see him again soon.

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Another couple of prospects getting promoted:

He’s only going to get better as he settles into the bigs:

How many does he end the season with?

Miller isn’t the only one looking good on their rehab assignment: