A's Mason Miller 'Unavailable' in Save Situation Amid Trade Rumors

Miller has been terrific for the A's since breaking into the big leagues, posting a 3.16 ERA in his 103 games since 2023, along with a WHIP that sits at 1.00. This season he had some trouble during the A's rough 1-20 stretch with his slider not landing for strikes, but he's corrected that issue and holds a 3.76 ERA on the year.

He's also topped out at 104 miles per hour with his fastball this season, making him one of the hardest throwers in baseball history. While closers sometimes feel like they grow on trees, pitchers with Miller's arsenal do not.

The San Diego Padres have been the team most recently linked to the A's closer, but as we wrote last night, they don't have the top-end pitching talent that the A's are seemingly after in a potential Miller deal. There have also been reports that if the Padres traded for Jarren Duran of the Red Sox, Steven Kwan of the Cleveland Guardians, or Miller, that they would have to include one of their top two prospects.

Those prospects are 18-year-old shortstop Leo De Vries, ranked as the No. 3 overall prospect in baseball, and 19-year-old catcher Ethan Salas (No. 20). Both are tremendous prospects, but neither is a pitcher. That said, we also mentioned that if the A's moved Miller, they could be more focused on being competitive in 2028--their expected first year in Las Vegas--than in 2026.

If that's the case, then landing one of these top-100 prospects would certainly help them along their goal to being the team they want to be when their new ballpark is expected to open. If you're going to trade a Mason Miller, you're going to want at least one player of that caliber.

The question remains if that will be the path that the A's end up taking, or if they will hold off on trading Miller until the offseason when they could engage more teams in trade discussions.

Miller is under club control through the 2029 campaign, but he is also set to enter his first of four arbitration years in 2026. This means that his value on the market will be extremely high, but also that there should be no rush to move him until the A's get exactly what they're after.

Following the emergence of Jacob Wilson and Nick Kurtz, along with a slew of other young talent on the roster, it would be odd if the A's decided to go after more players that were a little further away from the big leagues in this deal, but we'll have to wait and see what the return looks like--if Miller ends up getting moved.