I mentioned in today’s initial wave of Cubs minor league signings that Rafael Ortega was likely to be the first of many outfield signings given the extreme lack of upper-level depth.
It didn’t take long:
#Cubs have re-signed OF Ian Miller to a minor league contract.
— MiLB-Transactions (@tombaseball29) November 18, 2020
Miller, 28, is an extreme speed guy who is worth nearly any MLB org having at AAA, so it’s good that the Cubs retained him. As we saw this past Spring Training (the first one), Miller is a guy who’ll probably be right on that cusp of a bench job on a 26-man roster, but even when things were expanded to 28, he didn’t make the cut, only coming up very briefly during the season. Still, you just need a speed guy at some point(s) during the season, and Miller can be that guy, plus play great defense, and maybe not be brutal at the plate. (He’s never really had a big league chance, even as we might project him not to be a big-league-caliber bat.)
For now, you can think of Miller as Billy Hamilton lite. Though I’d still really like the Cubs to re-sign Billy Hamilton, too.