Reds sign Wade Miley to 2y/$15m deal

[Ron Madden]

Bobby Nightengale
@nightengalejr
Dick Williams in a statement: "It was important to add more innings and depth to the pitching staff, and as a lefthander, he will be a great complement to our existing group. Wade has had a lot of success that we feel he can continue to build on." #Reds

[JFLegal]

i like this signing a lot. was hoping the reds would sign a decent left-handed veteran to be the number 5 starter in the rotation. i was thinking something like 1-year, $10 million. i like this even more.

man this rotation is going to be something else with castillo, gray, bauer, disco and miley. i also like that mahle is stil there for depth, because other than 2012, when did the reds go an entire regular season without a starting pitcher getting injured? depth will be needed. and worst case, mahle can help out in the bullpen (if they don't send him to louisville as a starter).

i really like what the reds are doing so far this offseason. now go add a big-time bat, and add at least 2 quality arms to the bullpen (preferably 3).

[MikeS21]

Rosenthal's article about Miley's pitch-tipping is very interesting. I had to zoom in on the sample pictures to even see it myself. How a batter can detect that while in the batter's box, that's amazing.

Couple of good things about that.

First, it's an easy fix. But even more importantly, it will cause the video gang to zero in closer on all the pitchers and see if they are tipping pitches.

A second thing is that I have not heard too many of the Reds' pitchers who use a cutter extensively. They may use one here or there, but not as often as Miley. I wonder if any one will seek him out for some pointers and start using the pitch a little more? I have read that some pitching coaches have concerns about the cutter, and how it affects arm strength.

[The Operator]

I have read that some pitching coaches have concerns about the cutter, and how it affects arm strength.

That’s interesting, I’ll have to do some research on that. Seemed to be a pretty effective pitch for Mariano Rivera, and he lasted practically forever.

[Ron Madden]

https://www.mlb.com/reds/video/miley...13-default-vtp

[DocRed]

https://www.mlb.com/reds/video/miley...13-default-vtp

He's a good 'ol boy

[Ron Madden]

Bobby Nightengale
@nightengalejr
Wade Miley says Derek Johnson was a big reason why he wanted to join the #Reds. "He lets me be me and I think he does that with a lot of guys. I think that’s why he’s had a lot of success."

Bobby Nightengale
@nightengalejr
Wade Miley plans to begin his offseason throwing program Monday. “I know everybody freaked out about the September I had. I just went through a rough patch. Confidence is still good." #Reds

[Ron Madden]

The addition of Miley means the Reds will have to figure out what to do with young right-hander Tyler Mahle, who was initially the leading candidate for the fifth starter spot. The club hasn’t determined if it would keep Mahle starting at Triple-A Louisville or use him as a reliever in the big leagues.

Regardless, Krall expects that Mahle will be needed at some point.

“We ended up having Alex Wood, who made seven starts last year,” Krall said. “You always end up using more than just five starters. The more depth you can have, the better your team is going to be, the better the guy who comes up to the big leagues whenever you need to have one.”

Having pitched at home ballparks with short left fields like Boston with the Green Monster and Houston with its Crawford Boxes, Miley wasn’t worried about the cozier dimensions of Great American Ball Park.

“Not at all,” he said. “I feel like I’m going to try to keep the ball on the ground as much as possible. The ballpark is the ballpark. You can’t worry about that stuff. At least I don’t think about it too much. I’m going to come out and try to execute a game plan and put the team into a position to be successful and go from there.”

https://www.mlb.com/reds/news/reds-introduce-wade-miley

[allpurpose]

If Miley has a great season this will be seen as a steal. If he doesn't and falls off a cliff it won't.. I doubt there's going to be a lot of grey area with fans on this. Then again with some fans his last season with Houston was seen as falling off a cliff and irredeemable.. I don't see it that way, but time will tell. Personally I hope he has the best season of his career. I'm sure there are more than a few fans rooting for him to fail just so they can say, "See? I told you so!" I never root for any Reds players to fail at anything on the field unless they play for other teams.

[SomeCallMeTim]

At least with this signing, the Reds won’t be on the hook for 3 more years and $70M as the would have been the case with MadBaum.

Now if the Reds didn’t already have a stable of #1-4 arms, this wouldn’t be so exciting, but as an affordable #5 LH compliment, I think it is a good fit.

Reds were always getting beat by soft tossing lefties, its time for payback.

[redsfanmia]

The best thing about this signing is in the past Miley would have been signed to be the ace, now he’s the 4/5.

[Ron Madden]

Miley update
The Reds are off on Monday and have not named any starting pitchers for the coming week. It’s possible that left-hander Wade Miley could return from the 10-day IL. Miley has been out since July 31 with a left groin strain.

“I would anticipate he will start a game right after [the off-day], Tuesday or Wednesday,” Bell said. “With the off-days, we’re still seeing how guys are recovering and everything just to see if we want to give guys an extra day or not.”

Part of debate is where Tyler Mahle could be used next. Mahle has made two fill-in starts, for Anthony DeSclafani and Miley. Mahle worked six scoreless innings with one hit allowed vs. Cleveland on Tuesday.

“We could definitely use him out of the bullpen, but we have zero hesitation having him start a game also,” Bell said. “Or maybe we have it a little bit more structured out of the bullpen, for example, behind Miley.”

[schroomytunes]

I'm betting Mahle/ Miley will start Tuesday after the off day each going 3-4 innings

[Kc61]

When Miley returns, then Mahle - throwing so well - becomes an immediate factor in the pen.

Initially perhaps tandem with Miley, but eventually, with more flexible use, could help boost the pen pitching multi-inning stints. Reds need such a reliever.

[jup]

I'm betting Mahle/ Miley will start Tuesday after the off day each going 3-4 innings

I bet they don't.

Why would you push Bauer (at a minimum) off Wed, his regular day, unless you think Castillo needs more time after his start in Cleveland.

They reset the rotation so Antone's day would fall on the day off when they inserted him between Gray and Castillo last week. Not sure why you wouldn't skip that spot in the rotation (which is what they clearly planned when they inserted Antone in front of Castillo) and pitch Castillo and Bauer on 5 days versus pushing them both to six.