MILWAUKEE – By the time he met the media on Wednesday afternoon, Shelby Miller had already come to grips with the fact that his 2025 season is over after the Brewers placed him on the 60-day injured list with a sprained ligament in his right elbow. Having already undergone one Tommy John surgery in 2017, he faces the prospect of another, then the grind of a yearlong rehab.
Whether that means the end of a fine, 13-year Major League career is a question for the 34-year-old to tackle at a later date.
“Hanging them up? Possibly,” Miller said. “I feel like I was having a really good year and I think there’s still a chance for me to go out there and play. It will just really depend on how I feel physically, where I’m at mentally with the family, and the opportunities. Can I get guys out if I feel like I’m healthy and where I need to be? Absolutely. There’s plenty left in the tank as far as physical ability.
“But a second TJ is never easy. It’s going to depend on how I feel and where I’m at in my life when that day comes.”
Miller, who finished third in the voting for NL Rookie of the Year Award with the Cardinals in 2013 and a 2015 All-Star with the Braves, also pitched for the Rangers, Cubs, Pirates, Giants, Dodgers, Tigers and D-backs before coming to the Brewers at this year’s Trade Deadline to fortify a hard-worked bullpen. He had to first complete a comeback from a forearm injury, but once he arrived in Milwaukee, Miller almost immediately drew high-leverage assignments and was unscored upon in eight of his first 10 Brewers appearances before abruptly exiting Monday’s loss to the Phillies after feeling a pop in his elbow.
Miller will travel with the Brewers to Pittsburgh this weekend and then on to Texas, where he will consult with Dr. Keith Meister, the super-surgeon who performed his first ulnar collateral ligament repair. Meister has already reviewed the results of an MRI scan from Tuesday.
“From the sound of it,” Miller said, “it’s not very good.”
That’s bad news for the Brewers, who already have All-Star closer Trevor Megill (right flexor strain) on the IL along with relievers Grant Anderson (right ankle tendinitis), DL Hall (right oblique strain) and rookie starter Logan Henderson (right flexor strain). There was some progress for the others; Megill is scheduled to throw off a mound on Thursday, Anderson is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Nashville on Saturday, Hall is still a possibility to return in late September and Henderson hasn’t been ruled out for the postseason, according to reports from Milwaukee’s medical team.
But Miller won’t be an option for the Brewers the rest of the way.
“With the number of injuries in our bullpen, it crushes us,” manager Pat Murphy said. “But I’m more crushed for the guy. Shelby is a veteran, we just [recognized] him with his 10 years [of Major League service], and it was so fun. I’m just hurt for the guy. He’s in such great condition that I think he’ll come back. Age is just a number, but his attitude and his commitment might override all that.”
Miller indicated that he’s been on borrowed time for a while, saying that when he first experienced elbow and forearm discomfort with the D-backs, he and the doctors discussed the option of undergoing surgery to brace the UCL and repair his flexor tendon. Instead, he rehabbed that injury over the course of a month on the injured list.
“It just comes with the territory,” Miller said. “Baseball has a lot of wear and tear on the body, and when you play it for a long time, as long as I have, there’s going to be injuries and setbacks and stuff like that. It’s tough.”
It’s especially tough to miss the best stretch of the season with a contender.
“Getting traded over here was a blessing,” Miller said. “To be part of this organization and the run that we went on when I first got here, and being in first place and fighting for a postseason spot and the division and ultimately the World Series, to not be a part of that is going to be hard. But I’ll be here, supporting however I can.”
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