A’s Reliever Mason Miller Threw Five Nasty Pitches Over 102 MPH On Thursday

Oakland A’s fans might have much to cheer for these days, but there are still a few things worth watching at the Coliseum.

One of them is relief pitcher Mason Miller, who dialed up the heat on Thursday, throwing five pitches over 102 MPH, topping out at 103.7 MPH.

Mason Miller, 25, was drafted by the A’s in the third round of the 2021 Major League Baseball draft after playing college baseball at Waynesburg University and Gardner-Webb University.

With his five heaters over 102 MPH on Thursday, Miller has now crossed the 100 MPH plateau 45 times this season. Mind you, he has only pitched in 7.2 innings so far this year.

Of the 20 fastest pitches thrown in 2024 in Major League Baseball, Mason Miller has 15 of them, including the top 7 overall (5 of which came on Thursday alone).

His high of 103.7 MPH, amazingly, only puts him tied for 18th fastest pitch ever recorded in pitch-tracking era (since 2008). That ludicrous speed has now been reached by MLB pitchers an astonishing 185 times.

Of the top 20 fastest pitches ever recorded, 17 of them belong to Aroldis Chapman who holds the record at 105.8 MPH (Jordan Hicks and Jhoan Duran own the other three spots).

While Mason Miller’s feat is impressive, and it certainly is, it is also a big reason why there is currently an epidemic of pitchers with arm injuries in Major League Baseball.

Some people blame the pitch clock, the crackdown on sticky stuff, analytics, throwing year-round, and bad pitching mechanics for many of those injuries, but many others point to the same things Hall of Fame pitcher Pedro Martinez highlighted this week on X (Twitter).

“When we see so many up and coming MLB pitchers with fewer than 200 innings in the minors, lots of muscle mass, underworked baby ligaments and a team demanding max velo on everything they throw, we’re seeing the perfect lethal combination for arm injury,” Martinez wrote.

Throw in the increased emphasis on spin rate and it’s not hard to figure out why so many pitchers are hurting their arms these days.