Mason Miller's Dominance Puts Him on Pace for MLB History

Major League Baseball is in an era of unicorns. Look up at any given moment, and there's Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Paul Skenes or Cal Raleigh making history.

Increasingly, it seems like Mason Miller wants in.

Though he's only in his fourth major league season, the San Diego Padres right-hander already has a few claims to fame. He was an All-Star in 2024 and the closer for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic last month. And to those in the know, his perfectly placed 105 mph fastball in last year's playoffs might be the greatest pitch ever.

The scary part for hitters is how that pitch isn't exactly an outlier. That's the work of a guy who has put his own stamp on an age-old baseball term: unhittable.

Mason Miller Is on a Run Unlike Any Other

Miller, 27, has been working exclusively in relief for three seasons now, starting with the Athletics back in 2024. And believe it or not, his first outing of that year was actually a dud.

Then he ripped off 15 straight scoreless appearances, striking out 40 of the 66 batters he faced. That set a tone that's still sounding sweet, as his career strikeout rate of 39.5 percent is fourth-best of all time after Josh Hader, Edwin Díaz and Aroldis Chapman.

And yet, the full story of Miller's career matters less than the story of Miller right now. Or at least, specifically since August 6, 2025.

That was when, a day after getting tagged for two runs in his second appearance as a Padre, he began a scoreless streak that now spans 26 outings. He's tossed 27.2 innings and allowed five hits and no runs while fanning 58.

Even setting aside the strikeouts, he's the first pitcher to ever have a 26-game span like that. Factor in the 2025 playoffs and 2026 World Baseball Classic, and his tallies for his last 32 competitive appearances are:

• Innings: 34.1
• Batters Faced: 118
• Strikeouts: 76
• Hits: 5
• Runs: 0

Along the way, Miller tied the record for consecutive playoff strikeouts (8) and has since challenged the record for consecutive regular-season strikeouts (11). So if not for the 12 walks, he'd just be five hits away from untouchable, much less unhittable.

On vibes alone, the tier he's on right now feels akin to the one that Éric Gagné was on back in 2003. He went 55-for-55 in saves that year, with a whole host of other dominant numbers that resulted in him becoming the ninth relief pitcher to ever win a Cy Young Award.

To date, Gagné is still the last reliever to win a Cy Young. That's just how it is now that writers and analysts of all stripes are no longer impressed by saves—to the betterment of baseball, honestly.

Even so, Miller's current level of dominance is so extreme that seeing him at +10000 for the NL Cy Young Award at FanDuel still makes it feel like he has a chance.

It was only two years ago that Emmanuel Clase was a finalist for the AL Cy Young Award, and Miller could at least pull that off if one or more of the three finalists from last year—Skenes, Cristopher Sánchez and Yoshinobu Yamamoto—stumble in 2026.

How Miller Is Getting Even More Unhittable

Inasmuch as he is famous, the fastball is certainly what Miller is most famous for.

It's not so much that he can run his heater up over 100 mph, but rather how consistently he does so. He topped triple digits with 88.4 percent of his fastballs in 2025, a figure more than twice as high as the next-best pitcher. On average, he sits right around 101 mph.

Since last August, though, his fastball has actually taken a back seat as his primary offering. He now mainly shows hitters his slider, and why not?

The slider comes in around 88 mph and has well-above-average movement both vertically and horizontally. His whiff rate on it since August 6 of last year is 81.3 percent, and only one batter (shoutout to Riley Greene) has managed to put it in play.

Just for the regular season, the overall contact rate against Miller is 49.2 percent since August 6, 2025. If he's able to keep that up for all of 2026, he'll become the first pitcher in the pitch-tracking era to finish a season having avoided contact more often than not.

All-Time Relief Seasons Could Be Easy Targets for Miller

With loads of momentum and not one, but two overpowering weapons in his arsenal, it certainly seems worth asking if Miller has it in him to carve out a real place for himself in the annals of great relief seasons.

The records for saves (62 by Francisco Rodríguez in 2008) and WAR (8.2 by Goose Gossage in 1975) are likely out of reach. Even closers aren't used in accordance with how teams can best fill up the save column. And contrary to Gossage in '75, Miller is surely not going to pitch 141.2 innings.

There are, however, a few rate stats for which Miller could chase all-time records:

• ERA: 0.54 by Zack Britton in 2016
• WHIP: 0.57 by Koji Uehara in 2013
• Opponent AVG: .111 by Kirby Yates in 2024
• Strikeout Percentage: 50.2 by Craig Kimbrel in 2012

It may help Miller's chances that each of these records skews recent. It speaks to how relief pitchers in general are far nastier than they used to be, as well as to the ongoing challenge on the part of hitters to solve the problem.

As those records show, though, there are still apex relievers capable of standing out from the crowd. And with the way he's pitching, Miller has a chance to be the greatest of them all.

Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant.