One year and three weeks ago, Bobby Miller was at the peak of his young major league career.
After a promising rookie campaign in 2023, the hard-throwing right-hander had made the Dodgers’ 2024 opening-day rotation. In his season debut, he dominated the St. Louis Cardinals with 11 strikeouts over six scoreless innings. And as a former top prospect in the organization’s pitching-rich farm system, his ascent in the big leagues seemed to be just beginning.
One year and three weeks later, he faces a long climb back.
Now a depth arm in the organization who was called up from triple-A Oklahoma City for a spot start Wednesday, Miller’s first MLB outing of 2025 mirrored the struggles that plagued him over the rest of 2024.
During a woeful three-inning outing, the 26-year-old gave up six runs to the middling Colorado Rockies. Despite striking out seven batters, he was knocked around for a five-spot in the third, punctuated by a hanging curveball Michael Toglia hit for a grand slam.
The Dodgers still won, riding a seven-run first inning to an 8-7 victory that completed a three-game series sweep at Dodger Stadium this week.
But Miller’s implosion was another troubling sign for the Dodgers’ young depth options on the mound.
Like Justin Wrobleski and Landon Knack before him, his return to the majors inspired little confidence.
In a rare opportunity to make an impression on the Dodgers’ big-league roster, he instead faltered in a frustratingly familiar script.
“I know I’m a lot better than what I showed today,” Miller said.
Two innings into Wednesday’s start, Miller appeared to be in full control.
He had limited damage in a three-hit first inning, striking out the other three batters he faced to give up just one run. He breezed through the second, stranding a two-out single with two more strikeouts.
And in between, he waited in the dugout for almost 25 minutes while the Dodgers launched an assault on Rockies starter Germán Márquez.
Shohei Ohtani blasted a 448-foot leadoff home run to the top of the right-field pavilion. Freddie Freeman also found the right-field seats for a solo blast two batters later. From there, the Dodgers just kept coming, with Andy Pages driving two runs home with the bases loaded, Austin Barnes tacking on two more with a double that marked his first hit of the season, and Ohtani collecting another RBI in his second at-bat of the inning with a base hit.
Shohei Ohtani heads for home after his first-inning home run.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
All told, the Dodgers scored seven times, had nine batters reach base and chased Márquez from the game after 37 dismal pitches.
“It was a superb first inning overall as a team,” Ohtani, who is now tied for the team lead with six home runs, said through interpreter Will Ireton. “It’s really a testament for how focused we are from the get-go.”
It seemingly set Miller up to cruise through the rest of his night.
Instead, it all came unglued in the top of the third.
Though Miller felt “completely locked in” with his fastball and curveball — which helped him strike out six of the first 12 batters he faced overall — he couldn’t consistently execute his slider or signature changeup.
As a result, he felt “a little predictable” with what effectively became a two-pitch arsenal. And once his fastball command began waver in the third, the Rockies quickly began to pounce.
After Sean Bouchard led off with a first-pitch single, Kyle Farmer worked an eight-pitch at-bat against Miller, staying alive long enough to get a hanging curveball for a single.
Miller followed that up with a five-pitch walk to Hunter Goodman.
Then came the fatal blow, a hanging 1-and-2 curveball to Toglia that fluttered over the heart of the plate. Toglia unloaded on it for a grand slam to center. Miller hid his frustration behind a stoic face.
“Obviously I just missed a spot right there; I wanted to bury that one,” Miller said. “But at the same time, if I had my changeup in there, probably could have gotten out of there quicker … Just got to work on my other couple [pitches] and just be in the zone more consistently.”
So often last year, Miller endured starts like this, unable to build upon his early-season momentum in what became a forgettable campaign.
Following that dazzling debut against the Cardinals, he yielded seven runs over 5 ⅔ innings in his next two starts. Shoulder inflammation landed him on the injured list for two months after that. And once he returned, he never looked the same, stumbling to a 9.34 ERA over his final 10 outings.
During that second-half stretch, Miller was dogged by a nagging knee issue. But wild command (he walked 30 batters in 56 innings on the season) and lack of execution with his breaking pitches (highlighted by a .357 batting average against his curveball) were equally troublesome problems.
On Wednesday, they resurfaced again — with Miller yielding another home run on an elevated fastball to Mickey Moniak an at-bat after the grand slam.
“He’s trying his tail off. He’s competing. He didn’t run from it,” manager Dave Roberts said of Miller’s struggles. “But yeah, you do have to understand how to navigate hitters and innings to go deeper in games.”
Luckily for Miller, the bullpen picked up the slack against the woebegone Rockies (3-15) — including three innings of one-run relief from swingman Ben Casparius, who provided a bridge to Alex Vesia and Tanner Scott to close it out.
The Dodgers’ offense, meanwhile, provided just enough breathing room with a fifth-inning RBI single from Pages; completing a series in which their previously slumping lineup combined for 19 runs, 30 hits and 17 walks.
“We’ve done a good job of building innings and creating some stress and beating the starter, and we did that three times this series,” Roberts said. “So that was encouraging.”
The question now: Which depth pitchers are left for the team to trust?
Tommy Edman scores on a single by Andy Pages in the first inning.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers are still without Tony Gonsolin (who is expected to make one more minor-league rehab outing next week before returning from his back injury), Clayton Kershaw (who began a minor-league rehab stint on Wednesday and won’t be back for at least another month) and Ohtani (whose return to pitching remains a ways off) on the mound.
Knack (who had a 7.27 ERA in three outings this year) and Wrobleski (who yielded eight runs in his lone start last week) have already been optioned after their own poor starts.
It made Wednesday an opportunity for Miller to leave an impression at the big league level, and try to begin climbing back up the organizational depth chart.
Before the game, Roberts couldn’t help but reflect back on where he was one year and three weeks prior.
“He was just really thriving,” Roberts recalled. “As far as the upside potential, absolutely [it’s still there].”
What followed, however, was a reminder of how far Miller has slipped while trying to reach it, and the long road ahead as he tries to re-establish himself as a major league pitcher.
“I know the position I’m in, but I know when I’m on, I can be here for a long time,” Miller said, trying to strike a hopeful note at the end of an otherwise humbling night.
“I’m still young. I got a lot of time left in my career … Just learn from it, and keep moving forward.”
