Just to confirm there was no funny business going to happen with the waiver claim, today the Chicago Cubs officially picked up the $10 million team option for 2022 on Wade Miley.
The Cincinnati Reds waived Miley rather than pick up his reasonable option or pay the $1 million buyout (and they couldn’t trade him because the Cubs never bit), so the Cubs got him for no more than the option price. And it would’ve been nuts to pick him up on waivers and then buy him out, so, yeah, they picked up the option today.
From the official announcement:
Miley, who turns 35 on November 13, finished 12-7 with a 3.37 ERA (61 ER/163.0 IP) in 28 starts for the Reds in 2021, including his first career no-hitter on May 7 in Cleveland. The left-handed pitcher was named the National League Pitcher of the Week following his no-hitter, his first career weekly award. Miley allowed 37 earned runs in his first 20 starts of the season (2.75 ERA), becoming the third pitcher in Reds’ history, age 34 or older, to allow as few as 37 earned runs in his first 20 starts to a campaign. In 16 outings from May 31-August 27, Miley went 7-0 with a 2.41 ERA (27 ER/101.0 IP), tying the longest winning streak of his career.
Miley, who is entering his 12th major league season in 2022, is 97-92 with a 4.15 ERA (729 ER/1,581.0 IP) in 283 games (277 starts) lifetime. Since 2012, Miley ranks among the fourth among major league pitchers in starts (270) and 11th in innings (1,541.0). During his first full major league season in 2012, Miley finished second in the BBWAA’s N.L. Rookie of the Year voting, was named a National League All-Star and the N.L. Rookie of the Month in April.
The lefthander has been a part of the Arizona (2008-14), Boston (2015), Seattle (2016), Baltimore (2016-17), Milwaukee (2018), Houston (2019) and Cincinnati (2020-21) organizations during his career.
The six-foot, two-inch, 220-pound Miley was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first round (43rd overall) of the 2008 First-Year Player Draft. The Hammond, La., native attended Loranger High School in Loranger, La., and pitched for three seasons at Southeastern Louisiana University.
Miley figures to be a middle-of-the-rotation arm for the Cubs in 2022, though it’s worth noting that the Cubs could theoretically now do what the Reds were unwilling to do: trade Miley at some point, and maybe even eat some salary to get a nice prospect return. TO BE SURE, I do not expect that at all. I think the Cubs grabbed Miley because they wanted an arm like his on a cheap one-year deal. But I’m just saying, they now have the opportunity to do it, since the Reds weren’t interested in eating salary.