Checking in with Dodgers relievers Will Klein, Wyatt Mills

Long road back

Another Dodgers reliever is relatively new to the squad, as Wyatt Mills was called up last Sunday, when he pitched his first major league game since 2022 while with the Kansas City Royals. Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2023 and 2024 seasons, and after signing a minor league deal with the Boston Red Sox in 2025 never got called up. He signed with the Dodgers last August and spent the rest of the season at Camelback Ranch, and was a non-roster invitee in big league camp this spring. After a 3.26 ERA and 36.4-percent strikeout rate for Triple-A Oklahoma City, the 31-year-old Mills got the call back to the majors. His wife and two-year-old daughter were living with him in Oklahoma City, so they packed up and arrived in Los Angeles as a family last Sunday. I talked with Mills about his return to the majors. “I’ve been up, and those crazy jitters and nerves weren’t there, like it was in ’21. It was more of like a gratitude. A long road, it’s never a guarantee that you get fully healthy after that. So it was more like a deep breath, kind of peaceful. I felt calm. I put in a lot of work, and my confidence came from that,” Mills said. “Then to get out there, remind myself that I belong here, now we can move forward, rather than sit there for, sometimes five, six, seven days and you don’t play until that specific situation comes up where they need you.” Mills pitched in mop-up duty in his first two days with the Dodgers, getting the final out after allowing two singles in the ninth inning last Sunday against the Atlanta Braves, then entered in a three-run deficit in the ninth inning Monday against the Giants, walking four and hitting a batter to let three more runs in. Mills understands the nature of the role, as he himself was called up after Paul Gervase pitched three innings of relief last Saturday in a “take one for the team” outing before getting optioned to the minors. “It’s not fun. But when you’re in the stretch of 13 in a row, when you know the game is not essentially in the balance or I feel that I’m trying to win the war, not the battle, that’s just kind of the role of certain guys,” manager Dave Roberts said last Monday. “Instead of chasing a loss, because regardless of the score, it’s still just one loss in the loss column. It’s never good to have a guy wear it, and I just want to make sure I’m taking care of their health. But as long as that’s not a compromise, that’s part of it.” Mills got back on the beam with a scoreless inning on Friday night in Anaheim, one of eight Dodgers pitchers used in a shutout of the Angels.