The Orioles had been interested in acquiring Wade Miley for several years, and Dan Duquette had been targeting the left-hander since his first winter meetings as Orioles executive vice president. Duquette tried unsuccessfully to acquire Miley from the Arizona Diamondbacks before his breakout rookie season in 2012 and again before he was shipped from Boston to Seattle before this season.
Now, the Orioles have Miley – acquired Sunday, the day before the non-waiver trade deadline, from the Mariners for Triple-A Norfolk left-hander Ariel Miranda. He's the left-handed rotation arm Duquette had been searching for since losing lefty Wei-Yin Chen to free agency.
"Our scouts have followed Wade for several years," Duquette said in a press conference before Tuesday's series opener against the Texas Rangers. "… He's a workhorse. He's pitched over 200 innings a few times, excellent command of four pitches, he's got a good pickoff move. And he loves to compete. We hope he helps stabilize our pitching rotation and is a key piece we hope to help us advance to the playoffs."
Miley, who will debut with his fourth team in three seasons Thursday against the Rangers, now knows he's in a place where he's wanted. The 29-year-old is under team control through the 2018 season – his deal includes a club option for the final year – so the Orioles see him as a part of their future.
"It just gives you a little more confidence, that these guys have enough confidence to take that chance and it's now my job to help improve this team [to] get to the playoffs," Miley said. "That's where it starts. That's what we want to do."
Miley said he followed rumors that he might be traded leading up to the deadline, but hadn't heard any rumblings about coming to Baltimore. He was pleasantly surprised to be dealt to a first-place club.
"When I first found out I was excited," Miley added. "Going from a third-place team to a first-place team overnight, there's nothing wrong with that. So hopefully, I just come in here and not screw that up."
With so many teams in contentiona nd looking to improve their pitching staffs, Duquette said it was difficult landing a starting pitcher, let alone one in Miley whose contract is under team control for the next two full seasons.
"There was more teams chasing pure players because with the second wild card, allowing another club to qualify, there's more teams in contention now," Duquette said. "So generally what happens is you try to beef up your pitching staff this time of year. Teams that are out there competing to get into the playoffs are looking to add, and they're looking at a very limited pool of major league pitchers to add to their club. So it was certainly a seller's market."
The Orioles hope Miley can help upgrade a starting rotation that posted a 5.15 ERA in the first half of the season, a mark that ranked 14th among the 15 American League teams.
"He's a bulldog," said Orioles outfielder Mark Trumbo, who played with Miley in Arizona in 2014. "I think his tempo is my favorite thing, playing behind him. It can make it tough as a hitter — I've also seen that side of it. He works very quickly, doesn't waste any time. So from the defense, it really keeps them on their toes. He throws a lot of strikes. He's pretty much everything you ask for in a starting pitcher.
The Orioles believe Miley's career ground-ball rate of 48.4 percent will play well with the defense and his career home run rate of 0.9 per nine innings will neutralize the hitter-friendly nature of Camden Yards. Miley's ground-ball rate this season (46.6 percent) is its lowest in four years but his homers allowed per nine innings (1.45) is the highest of his career.
"If he can keep the ball on the ground he's going to help stabilize our rotation and our guys are going to score runs and make plays for him," Duquette said. "So all he has to do is what he's done over his whole career, and that's take the ball and go out and pitch. I think everything will go fine."
Miley – who has a diverse arsenal that includes a four-seam fastball, sinker, changeup, slider and curveball – averaged 198 innings per season from 2012-15, including back-to-back 200-inning seasons with the Diamondbacks in 2013 and 2014.
Duquette said he attempted to trade for Miley before the 2012 season, when he went 16-11 with a 3.33 ERA in 32 games, made the NL All-Star team and was second in NL Rookie of the Year voting in his first full major league season with the Diamondbacks. He also tried to acquire Miley this past offseason, when he was coming off a year in which he went 11-11 with a 4.46 ERA with the Red Sox, his only previous season in the American League East.
"He's got all the qualities to help our club, and not just for this year, for next year," Duquette said. " We've liked his skills for a while, going back to the first winter meetings. We tried to acquire him in a trade with Arizona. And he had a terrific year…. and he's had some good years since then. He's got some more good baseball ahead of him and I think there's a good fit here and a good opportunity to help our club. It's a good team. We've got a good offense, we've got a good defense and we've got an excellent bullpen."
Through his first 14 starts this season, Miley had a 5.58 ERA, but over the past month, he's pitched well. Despite going 1-4 in five July starts, he recorded four quality starts and a 3.45 ERA, including a seven-inning, one-run, one-hit, nine-strikeout outing in his last start on Saturday at Wrigley Field. That performance had Duquette fearing whether he'd be able to acquire Miley at the deadline.
"We had discussions ongoing and I wasn't so sure we were going to be able to do that after he pitched so well on Saturday, but we did and here he is," Duquette said.
Even though the Orioles didn't make any splashy moves at the deadline – and other competing teams in the division and the AL seemed to do more – the additions of Miley and Pearce sent a strong message to other Orioles players.
"When you buy, it gives your players a sense of 'Hey, our front office is trying to improve us and trying to see that we have something special here," center fielder Adam Jones said. "If you're selling, the team understands that you're in rebuild mode a little more, but I think that over the last five years here, we've proved to the front office that we have a formidable team on the field, and sometimes we just need a little push, and I think we got a little push right now, so let's see what that runs out for the next six to eight weeks and then to October."
Duquette said he will continue to improve the club down the stretch – players must now clear waivers before being traded but players acquired through Aug. 31 are still eligible for the postseason.
He said the team's additions of Miley, utility man Steve Pearce and right-handed reliever Logan Ondrusek, who was signed last week after pitching in the Japanese Central League, all address areas of need.
"At this time of year you'd like to be adding players without taking them away," Duquette said. "It's hard to do the math and make sure what you're subtracting doesn't take away what you're adding. Fortunately in this case we added three ballplayers. . … And we're going to continue to look for ways to strengthen the team. We want to see this through. We've been to the playoffs a couple of times and we want to advance to the playoffs and taking
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