Starstruck’ Aidan Miller appreciative of mentors at spring training — and of home-cooked meals
Aidan Miller exists in two different worlds right now.
One is defined by familiarity. He’s living at home, less than an hour north of Clearwater’s BayCare Ballpark. He’s sleeping in his own bed. “I’m enjoying those home-cooked meals still,” Miller told a group of reporters, including Phillies Nation’s Destiny Lugardo, on Tuesday. “Trying to take advantage of it for as long as I can.”
He tells his hometown friends about the other world. That one is all new.
“I feel good,” Miller said on the second day of his first MLB spring training. “I think the first day’s a little overwhelming — so much going on, meeting so many new people. But I feel pretty comfortable now. I’m excited to see what spring training has to offer, and try to soak up as much as I can.”
It’s natural. Miller is not supposed to be here — no 20-year-old is. But they aren’t supposed to be in Double-A, either, where he finished last season and figures to open this one. They aren’t supposed to make the front office float a quick rise to the big leagues, especially not for a World Series contender.
Miller is an exception, to all those norms. He’s created his own circumstances. His first full season in pro ball cemented his status as a top-two prospect in the organization, cracking the top 30 in the sport, by MLB Pipeline’s evaluation. He posted an .811 OPS in more than 100 games across three levels, with his only prolonged slump coming in the first couple weeks after his promotion to High-A Jersey Shore. He hit his way out of that funk, then into Reading.
It’s what prompted the Phillies to tell him in November he’d be at spring training this year, and what prompted Dave Dombrowski’s comments last week — which Miller is aware of. And while it’s nice to hear and obviously the goal, he’s trying not to get too far ahead of himself.
“I really try to take it one day at a time and try and get better every single day,” Miller said. “So, that’s the only thing I’m really focused on right now, is just taking it one day at a time, just staying where my feet are. And that’s the only thing I can control.”
Bryce Harper is one of the players he’s looking forward to learning from over the next month. Miller said he was starstruck when they met on Monday. He anticipates watching Harper go about his routine and asking him about, in his words, everything.
Really, though, there won’t be a shortage of learning opportunities in one of baseball’s more veteran clubhouses.
“What I noticed so far is the guys are all ears,” Miller said. “They’ve been really chatty with me so far, and I really appreciate that. Any questions I’ve had so far, they’ve all answered them.”
The one thing that won’t be new to Miller this spring — at the complex, that is — is the position he’ll play. The Phillies, at least for now, are keeping him as a shortstop instead of moving him to third or second, or elsewhere.
“I think it means they believe in me over there,” Miller said. “I have a great coach, [Phillies infield defensive coordinator] Adam Everett, who’s helped me the whole way I’ve been here. He believes I can be a shortstop, I believe I can be a shortstop as well. I think if I believe and work as hard as I can over there, I can stick there.”
Where Miller plays when he makes his eventual MLB debut is another question, but the current commitment to shortstop falls in line with how they’ve seemed to approach Miller’s development writ large: They believe in him.
