3 reasons why Padres won't move Mason Miller to starting rotation

3 reasons why Padres won't move Mason Miller to starting rotation originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The San Diego Padres had one of the best bullpens in all of baseball last year, and that was even before they went out and landed Mason Miller at the trade deadline.

He's been incredible for the Padres since coming to the team in a trade from the Athletics. But his dominance took another step this season, and has brought up the same question asked last year: Why isn't Miller a starting pitcher?

It's appealing, in theory, to be able to send Miller out as a starter who could go six innings with his dominant stuff. But, as Andy McCullough of The Athletic revealed, there are three main reasons why Miller won't be moved to the starting rotation.

3 reasons why Mason Miller won't be an SP for Padres

McCullough revealed the three reasons why Miller moving to the rotation won't happen: "1. He doesn't want to do it. 2. His body might break down as a starter. 3. Miller is so good as a reliever, he might be more valuable than the average starter."

For the first point, Miller mentioned before that he decided to stick in the bullpen instead of moving to the starting rotation. If Miller doesn't want to move out of the bullpen, it would be foolish for the Padres to try to force the issue.

McCullough's second point is an unfortunate one, but it's very important to keep in mind. Miller found success in the bullpen after dealing with injuries previously in his career, and it doesn't make much sense to risk bringing those issues back.

He's such an explosive and hard-throwing pitcher that if he were to move to a starting role and pitch a lot more than he is now, the Padres would be in a precarious spot with his health.

More: Shohei Ohtani deemed more valuable than Aaron Judge in recent ESPN discussion piece

Lastly, the Padres are getting more production from Miller out of the bullpen than most teams do from their average starters. Miller moving to the rotation and being just as good as he was in the bullpen is hard to imagine.

Most likely, he'd regress a fair bit in a longer role in the rotation. Such a move has a low chance of seeing Miller be as good in the rotation as he is out of the bullpen. And his value as a reliever is so immense that such a move wouldn't make much sense.

It's tempting to move Miller to the rotation, as the upside, if he were to be as good as he is now out of the bullpen as a starter who could go six innings, would make him the best pitcher in baseball.

But, between the injury risk, the likely regression that would hit, and especially Miller's preference for the bullpen, these three reasons likely mean Miller isn't leaving the Padres bullpen for the rotation any time soon, if ever.

More MLB news:

• Braves predicted to trade Bryce Elder for Lars Nootbaar
• Jacob DeGrom is only 149 strikeouts from 2,000 for his career
• Three ways Pirates' Paul Skenes could lose NL Cy Young Award
• Marlins suggested to sign Max Kepler after Phillies’ OF was suspended for 80 games
• Red Sox never close on Astros’ Isaac Paredes trade