The “Transactions” section on Tyson Miller’s Baseball Reference page is a dizzying read.

After being drafted by the Cubs in the 4th round in 2016, he made his MLB debut in 2020 and pitched 5 innings over 2 appearances for the team that season.

But after that, the whirlwind started. A constant train of movement, from the Cubs to the Rangers to the Brewers to the Dodgers to the Mets, back to the Dodgers, then to the Mariners and then back to the Cubs.

Miller was selected off waivers time and and again before signing with the Mariners last November and figuring out some major keys in Spring Training.

All that changing of teams meant a stream of new coaching staffs and front offices – all with different ways of doing things. Which in turn led to a variety of messages being delivered to Miller about how he should attack hitters or tweak his mechanics or fine-tune his repertoire.

With the Mariners, he finally felt like he found something that worked, calling the experience this spring “eye-opening.”

Seattle’s staff showed Miller how getting ahead of hitters was so key for the way his stuff plays and helped teach him how to not overthink things and have more of a simple mindset.

Now he has helped translate those lessons into success on the field.

In 15 games since the Cubs traded for him in mid-May, Miller has a 1.62 ERA and miniscule 0.60 WHIP in 16.2 innings.

He has walked only 3 batters all season in 28.1 innings between the Cubs and Mariners.

For a Cubs bullpen that has been ravaged by injuries and inconsistency, Miller has been a surprising saving grace.

“As a guy coming out of the bullpen, our job is to get Strike 1, get ahead of guys and make them swing at bad pitches,” Miller said. “My goal is to get ahead of hitters and make them put the ball in play without hitting any barrels.

“Honestly just not trying to overthink it and control what I can control.”

In all that movement for Miller earlier in his career, one of his stops was in Milwaukee last season where he crossed paths with then-Brewers manager Craig Counsell.

Miller spent Spring Training 2023 and the early part of the season with the Brewers, though he was shuttled between the minors and the majors. He struggled in Milwaukee with a 5.79 ERA in 7 games.

Now, he is firmly in Counsell’s Circle of Trust.

“It’s cool, evolving from where we were together last year with the Brewers,” Miller said. “Not a lot of trust – I wasn’t really performing that well. And then turned things around this year. It’s cool to have his trust.”

Counsell has seen a completely different version of Miller this season from a year ago.

“He’s changed significantly just in his pitch usage [since then],” Counsell said. “And that’s been the significant change for him. His slider is a very different pitch than it was last year.

“He’s done a great job at morphing into something different and frankly, more effective. And it’s made him a better pitcher.”

Miller’s slider is effective coming from his three-quarters arm slot and he is now throwing it nearly 40% of the time (39.6%, to be exact).

That pitch has made him very effective against right-handed hitters – to the point where the Mariners had tabbed him as a “righty specialist” earlier this season. But Miller has been getting everybody out this season and has actually been a bit better against lefties – .133 average, .528 OPS allowed compared to a .171 AVG and .559 OPS allowed to righties.

With lefties, Miller has found a way to incorporate other pitches beyond being so reliant on his fastball-slider combo but for him, it always just comes back to throwing strikes and getting ahead.

Miller started the season off with success in Seattle and positive results always lead to improved confidence.

“Confidence is the hardest thing to get in the big leagues,” Miller said. “It just comes with experience. You get hit hard, you come back, try and get guys out.

“It’s trial by effort – just go out there and get the guys out and confidence comes with it.”

It could have shaken Miller’s confidence when the Mariners – facing a 40-man roster crunch – designated him for assignment in May despite solid results.

But the 28-year old righty wasn’t deterred, instead focusing his perspective on the fact that the Cubs badly wanted to re-acquire him. And now he has become one of their most trusted and essential relievers as they look to try to turn their season around.