CLEVELAND: Until further notice, Andrew Miller’s role in the Indians’ bullpen isn’t changing. He hasn’t been inserted as the Indians’ closer, and he hasn’t been relegated to an eighth-inning role.
It’s a nod to the growing trend in baseball that a set inning for the relievers at the back end of the bullpen might not be the best way to go about things every night. There’s also a growing thought that a team’s best relief pitcher doesn’t necessarily have to be saved for when the team is leading in the ninth inning.
It’s not exactly a new thought, but compared to roughly 100 years of baseball strategy that was set in stone, it’s still pretty young.