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Five years ago, the Trajekt Arc made its way into major league batting cages and exploded in popularity for its ability to precisely simulate any pitch from any pitcher. For hitters seeking to train their eyes against some of the world’s most devastating offerings, the machine became a revolutionary tool. And yet, when it comes to preparing for San Diego Padres closer Mason Miller, it is rendered useless.
Miller’s excellence, it turns out, can’t be captured by AI.
“Trajekt is amazing,” Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy stated, “but there’s certain things it can’t mimic. It can’t mimic that ball just absolutely exploding out of his hand. It’ll be a hundred, but it’s not going to be the same hundred.”
Muncy lived it on back-to-back nights in San Diego last month, during his first two encounters with Miller. Muncy struck out in his first plate appearance and managed a walk in his second, and through it all, he felt hopeless. As a left-handed hitter, Muncy has more time to pick the baseball up from Miller’s right hand. But instead of seeing shape or spin to discern a fastball from a slider, one of the sport’s most disciplined sluggers saw what looked like a light bulb dashing toward him at implausible speed. Many of the pitches Muncy sees over the course of a season don’t feel nearly as fast as the scoreboard radar gun indicates.
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With Miller, it’s the opposite.
“It says ‘101’ or ‘102’ when in reality it feels like 110,” Muncy stated. “It feels impossible to put in play.”
Statistically, it almost has been.
While putting up a 1.01 ERA and going 18-for-18 in saves this season, Miller boasts a 49% strikeout rate, by far the highest among pitchers with at least 25 innings — second is Milwaukee Brewers starter Jacob Misiorowski at 39.6% — and within striking distance of becoming one of just three relievers to ever strike out half their opposing batters. Of the 104 batters Miller has faced this season, 51 have struck out and only 12 have recorded hits. They’ve all been singles.
The last extra-base hit Miller allowed was a home run to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on Aug. 5, 2025, in his second appearance since coming over on another blockbuster trade by Padres general manager A.J. Preller. From there, he went on to set a franchise record with 34⅔ consecutive scoreless innings. The lowest slugging percentage allowed by a pitcher who accumulated at least 50 innings in a given season is .166, by Brandon Workman for the 2019 Boston Red Sox. Against Miller this season, opponents are slugging .132.
“At the end of the day, it’s the greatest closer in baseball right now,” Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla stated. “There’s no doubt in my mind.”
Miller’s average fastball velocity of 101.2 mph easily leads the majors. He and Misiorowski have accounted for 33 of the 35 fastest pitches this season, a list headlined by the 103.8 mph four-seamer Miller unleashed against then-Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Alek Thomas on April 25. But pitch velocity is only part of his success. The speed of his arm motion is just as important.
“It’s fast,” Niebla stated, “but it’s short, too.”
Miller coils with his back hip during his delivery, like most pitchers, but also keeps his throwing shoulder turned inward, holding more tension and creating the effect of a tight rubber band.
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“It’s not a long tension,” Niebla explained. “It’s a short tension that releases quickly. And what we see is the arm really flying through the zone.”
Miller’s extension is within the top 20% of major league pitchers, allowing his velocity to play up, but, as a rival pitching coach recently pointed out, the ball goes from inside his glove to out of his hand at seemingly unprecedented speed. When it’s thrown, the spin is so tight, the tunneling so precise, that his triple-digit fastball and upper-80s slider can be indiscernible.
“It’s such a difference in velocity, and when you realize it’s a slider, it’s too late,” Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages stated in Spanish. “His arm moves so fast, so you think it’s coming hard, and then it comes out slower. And when you realize it’s slower, you’re already off-balance.”
Miller’s slider is more of a weapon now than ever. He’s throwing it a career-high 55.5% of the time, and the expected slugging percentage against it is a measly .064. Of the 18 sliders that have been put in play this season, only one has been hit harder than 95 mph.
Also: There are two of them.
By shifting the placement of his thumb and the alignment of his wrist, Miller can slightly manipulate the vertical and horizontal movement of his slider. His is more vertical than most, but he can now make it sweep more away from righties and in on lefties on command. He experimented with it in 2024, when he made the full-time switch from starter to reliever for the Athletics and finished fourth in American League Rookie of the Year voting. He got better at it in 2025, while putting up a 2.63 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP. And he might have mastered it in 2026.
“It helps a lot, just being able to throw it down to lefties and sweeping away from righties,” Miller stated. “It almost becomes two different pitches.”
Miller has made 50 appearances (including the playoffs) since the Padres traded their best prospect, shortstop Leo De Vries, to acquire him from the A’s last July. Forty-seven have been scoreless. Before surrendering a run on two singles Friday — he’d checked into a 4-0 deficit because it had been a week since he pitched — the only runs scored off Miller this season were sparked by an errant pickoff throw and a controversial call off a swinging bunt.
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His usage has reflected his team’s success. When the Padres stormed out of the gate to build a half-game lead on the Dodgers by May 18, Miller finished 20 of their 29 wins. They’re just 4-13 since, their shaky rotation and slumping offense finally catching up to them, and Miller has appeared just five times. The Cy Young talk that surrounded him after a historic first month has faded.
Miller began this season by striking out 19-of-24 and 27-of-38. In April, he allowed only nine of 54 batters to reach base safely. In May, when walks crept in more frequently, it was 12-of-42. Niebla likes to say he “went from historical to great,” which tends to encompass Miller’s fluctuations. When the bullpen gates open for him, his battles are usually waged internally. He isn’t competing against a hitter as much as he is fighting his own mechanics or repelling his own complacency.
“It’s the competitor in all of us,” Miller stated. “We can always get a little bit better, we can always get a little bit finer. It’s a long season. Your dominance in one portion of it can easily be overshadowed by your lack of dominance in another. The consistency is the separator.”
In Miller, Niebla sees a pitcher who has become more disciplined in his preparation and more conscious of his delivery, allowing him to make quick adjustments when something goes awry. It has taken him to levels of dominance rarely seen.
Adjusted ERA, or ERA+, accounts for external factors to normalize the stat leaguewide, with 100 being the average. Someone with a 150 ERA+ — 50% better than league average — is considered elite. The greatest ERA+ ever belongs to Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera, who put up a career mark of 205.
This year, Miller’s ERA+ is 404.
“It feels very comforting to have him come in at the end of games,” Padres manager Craig Stammen, a former reliever himself, stated. “I feel really good about how the game’s going to end. Will he be perfect the entire season? I don’t know. Humans aren’t perfect.”
But no human throws like Mason Miller — and no robot can, either.
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