The unsinkable Bryce Miller

With revamped weapons, Big Tex has reason to be Big Confident

The Mariners encourage their players to be themselves, and Bryce Miller—or “Big Tex,” as manager Scott Servais calls him—has taken up that challenge with enthusiasm. Whether it’s showing up for press conferences dressed like an extra from Duck Dynasty, heading out on road trips in his pointed tan leather cowboy boots and matching hat, or strutting around the clubhouse in a tank top shredded to ribbons he claims to have gotten out of the lost and found, Miller’s wry smile and breezy “cool cowboy” persona can mask the intense competitor lurking within—but then, what hunter worth his salt doesn’t understand the importance of camouflage?

But “Big Tex” persona aside, what stood out about Miller during his press conferences last year was his intensely reflective nature. Win or lose, he was always ready to sit down and discuss in-depth what he did, what he didn’t do well, and what he planned to do better next time, citing specific at-bats he felt he could have executed better or analytical targets he was working towards. He was always quick to take ownership over his mistakes while celebrating his accomplishments—and those of his teammates, whom he never fails to praise. It’s a level of team-mindedness and accountability that’s impressive for any player, let alone a rookie who was still learning the big-league ropes.

So far this season, Miller’s “Big Tex” persona has receded somewhat, but the straight-shootin’ Texan remains; he’s still quick to admit when he didn’t have his best stuff or failed to execute pitches. But this year, Miller has many more weapons to discuss postgame, and more avenues to get himself out of trouble if he finds himself in it.

That trouble could have spiraled early in Wednesday’s game, his fourth start of the season. While not as shaky as his season debut, where he struggled to locate consistently in the zone, Miller’s outing against the Reds wasn’t as crisp as his sterling game in Milwaukee. Postgame, Miller noted that he felt off early on.

“It took me three or four innings to stop feeling like I was pulling everything. But as the game went on, I think I got better, and there’s days like that, there’s days where you feel like everything’s working, and today was one of those where it didn’t feel like it was.

But if it was last year, whenever I felt like this then I felt like I was just in a hole. Whereas now, if something’s not working, I can go to something else.”

Despite the shaky command, Miller was able to hold the Reds at bay, surrendering just one run—a home run to Elly De La Cruz on a slider that wound up in the lefty loop zone.

But lefties haven’t been feasting on Miller like they did last season. Last year, Miller had a sparkling 2.86 FIP against righties, but his FIP against lefties was about double that: 5.46. That was largely driven by the 12 home runs he surrendered to left-handed batters, vs. just six to righties.

So far this season, Miller has reversed that trend. He’s actually struck out more lefties (13) than righties (11), thanks largely to teams stacking lefty-heavy lineups against him. And while the two home runs he’s given up to lefty batters—including the one to De La Cruz on Wednesday—skew his overall numbers somewhat, lefties are only hitting .109 off him, making significantly softer contact than last season.

“He can navigate his way through really any type of lineup,” said Scott Servais after Wednesday’s game. “There were a lot of concerns—’how do I get through the left-handed hitters?’—and he’s very comfortable with the lefties up there right now. He’s got plenty of weapons to go after them and get them out.”

“Whenever it got a bit tough with him, he just didn’t have a whole lot of Plan B to go to. But his ability to land the off-speed pitches early in counts—he struggled to do that at times last year—he’s just grown so much as a pitcher and in his ability to have a feel for where he’s at in the game.”

Miller’s new splitter has garnered the majority of attention, but another weapon he’s been able to deploy against lefties is the sweeper, a pitch he threw more to righties last year with limited success.

“It’s not a pitch I don’t think [lefties] are looking for, and it’s not a pitch that they really want to hit, so whenever I execute that pitch, it’s like a head start on that at-bat,” Miller said. “I get to 0-1 and then I can work with whatever else. But executing that pitch has been big. Just trusting that I need to throw it like a fastball. I know last year it was a weird pitch for me because I was dropping it, but I’m in a better spot with it this year throwing it for strikes.”

It’s a limited sample size (34 pitches), but you can see that so far in 2024 (pictured on the right), Miller is more consistently landing the sweeper on the edge of the zone rather than in the middle.

Here he is facing Elly De La Cruz for the second time in the game after Elly had homered his first time up. He steals a strike with the sweeper, and eventually punches out De La Cruz looking on a four-seamer on the same edge but elevated slightly.

Another weapon for Miller is his sinker, also developed on the fly last year when Miller was treading water, trying to keep the best hitters in the world off-balance. The glove-side sinker was especially effective in Wednesday’s outing; it accounted for four of his seven strikeouts, with a whopping three of them against leadoff man Jonathan India.

It’s a pitch Miller has become more confident in with a sample size of one:

“The first one that I threw last year was in a full count to Mookie Betts and I think like, seeing it work against him, going into this year I knew that if I could execute it, that’s gonna be a good pitch for me.”

Funnily, Miller didn’t get the strikeout on the pitch—you can see his disappointed little bounce after the pitch is ruled a ball—but according to Miller’s lore, that’s all he needed to give him confidence in throwing that pitch.

Is this more Big Tex cool cowboy persona? Maybe, but that confidence and unshakable sense of self has helped Miller make adjustments on the fly at the highest level of the game. Miller’s easy-going nature also makes it easy for teammates to relate to him, regardless of what language they prefer. Watch the Mariners dugout and you’ll often see Miller talking up Luis Castillo, asking him questions about grips or pitch selection, or just cutting up together over some joke.

Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports

Miller’s willingness to try anything has endeared him to teammates; last year when the social media team was asking players who they’d most like to take a road trip with, Miller was the most often named as the ideal co-pilot (“they said that?” he said with delight when told he was the most popular answer. “Well, I am up for anything.”). During 2023 spring training, he offered to spearhead an outing to Arizona’s medieval festival. “I figured there’d be horses there,” he explained, in typical Miller fashion.

“Big Tex” might be a persona, but it’s one that has helped Miller be ruthlessly self-reflective during his journey through the big leagues, willing to set aside his ego and scrap what doesn’t work while having the confidence to try new things and trust his stuff, even when it’s not at its best.

“Knowing that I can compete and get through six innings with below average [stuff], it’s definitely good. It makes me excited for this next week.”

And because you can take the pitcher out of Texas but he’ll always be Big Tex:

“And I get to throw down in Texas, so I’m excited.”