SF Giants reliever returning from injury admits he got lucky in 2025

Looking at SF Giants reliever Erik Miller's stats from last season, it would be easy to think that he was dominant. The Stanford product is a smart guy though, and even he would be the first to admit that he had the benefit of some good luck in 2025.

He recently said the following about his 2025 performance: "I’m very realistic. It’s easy to look at the basic stats and be like, ‘Oh my God, that was amazing.’ But I understand I definitely got lucky in a lot of things like the expected stuff. I’m not going to act like I was out there shutting people down every inning."

SF Giants reliever Erik Miller acknowledges he got lucky in 2025

His surface-level numbers were indeed strong. The tall left-hander had a 1.50 ERA in 36 appearances and 30 innings pitched. However, if you dig a bit deeper you start to get the full story. He walked 20 batters in those 30 innings and his expected ERA was 4.58 which suggests his ERA definitely should have been higher and he got some good breaks.

It seemed like Miller was always pitching through traffic last season. A lot of it was of his own making with the free passes but to his credit he got out of a lot of tough jams. That experience will serve him well in the future especially if he gets brought into an existing inning with runners on base.

The good news is that his stuff did not experience a drop-off and his velocity remains good. The bad news is that Miller dealt with a UCL sprain last season that landed him on the IL. He tried to see if he could come back towards the end of the year but ultimately he was shut down out of precaution. He is reportedly feeling good and ready to go in camp.

With the current state of San Francisco's bullpen, the Giants have to be hoping that Miller can return to his usual self in 2026. Expecting a sub-2.00 ERA may be wishful thinking especially since the baseball gods might have some ghastly tricks up their sleeves to even things out after last year.

But if he stays in the strike zone more and flashes that elite stuff he could absolutely be the team's eighth, or even ninth, inning guy.

Some other lefties in the bullpen competition include Sam Hentges, Matt Gage, Reiver Sanmartin, Juan Sanchez, and Nick Margevicius.

Miller may have gotten a little lucky in 2025, but the expectation is that he will be a huge part of the bullpen this season. If he's not, then it's the Giants who are going to have to get lucky and hope another strong left-handed option in the bullpen emerges.