As the only major leaguer ever to go by the first name Miles, the St. Louis Cardinals’ Miles Mikolas has a fitting career itinerary: He had to travel many thousands of miles to land on the doorstep of the major league All-Star Game.
Mikolas, a 29-year-old right-hander, reached the majors with the San Diego Padres in May 2012. Over the next 2 1/2 years, he was optioned to Class AAA nine times, traded twice and released once, by the Texas Rangers. On his honeymoon in Cancún, Mexico, after the 2014 season, Mikolas and his wife, Lauren, decided to move to Tokyo.
“First major life decision, comin’ right at you,” Mikolas said recently, laughing during an interview in the Cardinals’ dugout. “We made that decision and decided to roll with it.”
His career momentum has kept right on rolling. Mikolas went 13-3 with a 1.92 ERA for the Yomiuri Giants in 2015. When his agent found only mild interest from major league teams — they wanted to see more from a pitcher whose major league ERA was 5.32 — Mikolas returned and thrived for two more years.
After earning around $7 million over his three seasons in Japan, Mikolas signed with the Cardinals last winter for two years at $15.5 million. He has proved to be a steal, going 9-3 with a 2.63 ERA and a National League-low 1.4 walks per nine innings. Mikolas seems poised to be named a Cardinals representative in the July 17 All-Star Game in Washington when rosters are announced Sunday night.
“He’s always had good stuff, and he was just throwing strikes at a really good rate in Japan,” Cardinals general manager Michael Girsch said. “I don’t think we expected him to have the best walk rate in the league, but we knew he’d throw strikes and had good stuff, and we thought he’d be a good, solid starting pitcher. We couldn’t be happier with how he’s worked out.”
Neither could Mikolas. He returned from Japan a more refined pitcher, having developed a more consistent routine and learned to trust his slider as a reliable third option to complement his curveball and 94 mph fastball. He also smoothed his mechanics, keeping his head still in his delivery to maintain a consistent release point.
Most important, Mikolas said, he surrendered to the notion that, as long as he was playing in Tokyo, he was no longer a major leaguer.
“A lot of it’s pride,” he said. “You do have to take a little bit of a hit to your ego. When you take that leap to go over there, you’re kind of checking yourself: ‘This is where they want me the most, and I am no longer a Major League Baseball player. I am a Nippon Professional Baseball League player.’ Guys will go over there with the mindset, ‘I don’t belong here — I belong in the major leagues,’ and then they don’t do well because they don’t buy into it.”
Mikolas did, but he said he missed the perks of the major league life: the modern ballparks, the charter flights, the upscale hotels — “those little creature comforts that make big league life pretty nice.”
Since Mikolas used the words “little creature,” we’re obligated to mention his brush with internet fame. In 2011 — acting on a dare from his teammates in the Arizona Fall League — Mikolas ate a live lizard in the bullpen. A video of his reptilian snack has been viewed more than 100,000 times, but Mikolas would rather not dwell on it.
“Thanks, YouTube, for keeping me relevant when I wasn’t around, I guess,” he said. “When I signed, I went to the winter meetings and I did some interviews about it. I can talk about it; I can ham it up a little bit. But I’m not here to eat lizards or talk about eating lizards. I’m a baseball guy.”
And this season, he has been one of the best.
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When the Seattle Mariners signed left-hander Wade LeBlanc to a one-year, $2.75 million contract extension Tuesday, they made sure to add three option years to the end of the deal, at $5 million each. And when Jerry Dipoto has the option to put LeBlanc on his roster, he usually takes it.
As general manager of the Los Angeles Angels, Dipoto signed LeBlanc in 2013, lost him on waivers to the New York Yankees, then signed him again in 2014. As the Mariners’ GM, Dipoto traded for LeBlanc in 2016 and signed him again after the Yankees released him this March.
“We picked him up at the end of spring training this year with the intent of being that swing guy you just trust,” said Dipoto, who received his own contract extension Friday. “He’s as good a teammate as you’re going to come across. He takes the ball whatever the role, and he gives you a chance.”
Besides the Angels, the Mariners and the Yankees (who used him for one game in 2014), LeBlanc, 33, has pitched for the San Diego Padres, the Miami Marlins, the Houston Astros and the Pittsburgh Pirates in parts of 10 major league seasons. He has spent so much time in the minors that he does not yet have six years’ service time, which would qualify him for free agency. But with a 4-0 record and a 3.19 ERA this season, LeBlanc could have staying power in Seattle.
Over his last 209 major league innings, Dipoto noted, LeBlanc has an ERA+ of 109, meaning, statistically, he has performed nine percent better than the average pitcher. Yet of the 110 major leaguers with at least 70 innings through Wednesday, LeBlanc had the slowest average fastball, at 86.4 mph, according to Fangraphs. Dipoto explained how he makes it work.
“I do think he has a high level of understanding of his stuff,” Dipoto said. “On the days where Wade is really clicking on his curveball, he can sneak it in there for strikes. He has a very effective cutter and an excellent change-up. Those three elements offset what is a generally lower-impact fastball, and as a result it plays up. He doesn’t beat himself with walks: He throws it over the plate and he lets his fielders do what they do. I really appreciate the subtlety of what he’s about.”