Spencer Miles’ Numbers Are Proving Which Role Fits Him Best

The Toronto Blue Jays may have stumbled into one of baseball’s most underrated and impressive relievers this season, and he’s been an incredible part of Toronto’s very strong bullpen. His name is Spencer Miles, and he was on absolutely nobody’s radar coming into the 2026 season. Now, he’s transformed into a bona fide dominant reliever on the mound.

The Blue Jays took a flyer on Miles in the 2025 Rule 5 Draft, swiping him from the San Francisco Giants and giving him an invite to 2026 Spring Training. Prior to being selected by the Blue Jays, Miles had only thrown 14.2 professional innings between 2022 and 2024, so this was a risky selection with essentially nothing to lose on Toronto’s part.

With a strong showing in the spring, Miles was granted a spot on the MLB roster, making him one of the greatest breakout performers of the 2026 season. If the Blue Jays got a 4.00 ERA over 30 innings from him, this move would’ve been considered a win for the Jays, but nobody could’ve foreseen the pitcher that was lurking behind Miles’ rather incomplete resume.

Spencer Miles, the Giant

Miles was drafted by the Giants in the fourth round (136th overall) of the 2022 draft out of the University of Missouri, where he had posted ERAs above 6.00 in his final two seasons at school but showed some solid strikeout potential. San Francisco took a shot at turning him into a strong professional starter, but things just didn’t work out the way the Giants or Miles would’ve hoped or expected.

Coming off just 7.1 IP in 2022, Miles’ 2023 season was completely lost due to him needing corrective back surgery, making his age-23 season in 2024 even more important for his future in professional baseball. Miles threw 7.1 IP of solid ball once more for the Giants’ Rookie-level team, but once again, his season was cut short because he needed Tommy John surgery.

Keeping him off a professional mound for the rest of 2024 and the entirety of 2025 (aside from 8.2 IP in the Arizona Fall League later that year), Miles found himself in a limbo state where he’d never been healthy enough to pitch and hadn’t been super successful when he was healthy. The Giants didn’t protect him in the ensuing Rule 5 Draft, and the Toronto Blue Jays took a flyer on his services.

Amidst all the major moves and signings that the Jays made this past offseason, who would’ve thought that one of their best decisions was to draft a 25-year-old unprotected pitcher with just 14.2 professional innings under his belt and zero experience above the Single-A level? Simply put, Miles was a diamond in the rough, and his big-league career began the day he showed his stuff at Spring Training in Dunedin.

Tested As a Starting Option

After earning himself a roster spot coming out of Spring Training, Miles began as a reliever but transitioned into a starting role soon after his debut. Owing to early-season injuries to the likes of Dylan Cease, Cody Ponce, Trey Yesavage, Max Scherzer, and Shane Bieber, Miles was tested as a long-relief option who got three-to-four-inning spot starts when the Jays needed it.

Even though he didn’t have a big-league resume behind him yet, Miles was already filling in wherever Toronto needed him, just like a veteran option.

His first career MLB start came on May 10 against the Angels, where he tossed three innings of shutout ball, allowing just two hits in the first of three consecutive scoreless appearances of at least three innings. On occasion, the Jays would start an opener like Braydon Fisher or Mason Fluharty before bringing Miles in during the second or third inning, and he thrived in these opportunities.

Between his first career start and the All-Star break, Miles posted a 2.57 ERA over 42.0 innings with a 41/14 strikeout-to-walk ratio, allowing just 31 hits and two home runs. Over this stretch, he threw three-plus innings on eight occasions, and two-thirds of these outings were scoreless appearances. He was really coming into his own in this hybrid role, earning more and more high-leverage situations in front of dominant relievers like Tyler Rogers and All-Star Louis Varland.

Coming out of the All-Star break, and especially after the August 3 trade deadline, the Blue Jays started leaning more into Miles’ talents in the bullpen. Once again, he filled whatever role they needed him to fill, and he’s done so perfectly.

Finding His Home in the Bullpen

Miles has appeared in ten relief outings since the All-Star break and has been nearly untouchable over that span. He notched a 1.20 ERA over 15 innings with 12 strikeouts, only one walk allowed, and zero home runs allowed. Not only has Miles been incredibly effective as a reliever, but being able to pitch in smaller stints and workloads has afforded him the opportunity to hone his pitch arsenal even more.

His primary pitch is a sinker, which has seen a rise in velocity in recent games as it sits at 96.1 mph on average this season, and his breaking balls have become much more effective. As a reliever, Miles doesn’t have to worry about making sure his pitches will grade out over a three-plus inning appearance, and he can leave it all out on the mound over one or two innings of work.

Among pitchers with at least 50 innings pitched as a reliever in 2026, Miles has the seventh-best ERA in the league at just 1.80 over his 65 relief innings pitched. Of the pitchers ahead of him in ERA, only one reliever has been more effective at limiting walks. Another important area to focus on is the fact that this is Spencer Miles’ first ever professional season with at least 10 IP.

In Blue Jays history, there is only one other rookie pitcher with at least 70 IP and a better ERA than Miles, that being Mark Eichhorn in 1986. He finished sixth in AL Cy Young voting with a 1.72 ERA over 157 IP. Miles is putting himself in elite company among Blue Jays relievers, and this is just the start of his MLB journey.

Not only has this been an incredible opportunity for Miles to get back in the driver’s seat and re-establish his skillset and confidence on the mound, but it’s been a breakout season for the ages.

Closing Thoughts

As a minor-leaguer plagued with injuries for the majority of his career, Spencer Miles dreamed of reaching his goal of playing in the major leagues. It seemed as though everything was going wrong for him in his quest to reach this goal, but then it all changed. Now owning a regular role in the Blue Jays’ bullpen, Miles has been one of the most effective relievers in Blue Jays history after hardly having any professional track record to show for it.

The Jays tried him out as a starter, but after some difficulties in that role and some tweaking to his pitch arsenal, he found himself at home as a reliever. Who knows if there’s a future for Miles as a starting pitcher, as he’s proven himself capable of tossing multiple innings. However, it seems as though his destiny lies as a high-leverage reliever, as he’s been one of the league’s very best performers in this role all season long.

From being an unprotected asset in the Giants’ system to a Spring Training opportunist to a fan-favorite MLB reliever in just under a year, Miles has proven that he indeed belongs here.