Fans at Lehigh Valley were more than just a little disappointed last September when Aidan Miller was held out of the lineup for the last three games of the season. Outfielder Justin Crawford was already missing after suffering a concussion and losing a tooth or two after a collision with Otto Kemp while the two were chasing after a little pop-up down the left field line – Kemp from third base and Crawford from left field. Now, they weren’t getting to see Miller.
The reasoning sounded a little spotty, but still had a ring of sense to it. Apparently, Miller was dealing with some nagging injuries and they wanted to sit him so he had a chance to rest and get healthier before heading to Arizona for the Arizona Fall League. The next we heard about Miller was that he was being held out of the AFL and being replaced by Bryan Rincon.
Fast forward to the spring and Miller is not playing because he had some mild lower back soreness. Most 21-year-olds don’t have lower back soreness, but very early in Spring Training it’s not unusual for something like that to happen as players begin to work harder than they have during the offseason. The longer he was out though, the more you started to connect some things. Could this be something more than that simple “lower back soreness?”
Miller, 21, is recovering from a recurring back issue, stalling the Phillies’ plans to play him at shortstop and third base throughout the spring. It’s unclear if Miller will play in any Grapefruit League games, or be ready for Triple-A Lehigh Valley’s season opener on March 27.
Todd Zolecki, MLB.com on Saturday February 28.
Zolecki confirmed via email that Miller being pulled from the IronPigs lineup in September, being held out of the AFL, and not playing early in Spring Training are all the same issue: “It definitely was the back issue.”
In Zolecki’s story on Saturday, Phillies president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski refused to use the word “chronic” when talking about Miller. “I can’t answer the question that it’s chronic at this point. Anytime a guy’s out with an injury and it comes back, there’s a little concern. But they tell me he’s making progress right now, and hopefully he’ll continue to do so. There’s still even some hope that he’d be ready for the beginning of the season.”
If the issue is chronic and continues to bother Miller throughout his career, it definitely changes things. A major league baseball season is long and not something that players with bad backs are known to endure very well. On the upside, Miller will have the latest treatments, workout regimens, and overall care that can make it manageable. Bryce Harper has played with chronic back issues, but thanks to adjusted regimens and treatments, Harper’s time on the IL because of the issue has been limited.
The medical definition of a person with chronic lower back pain is: A patient who reports pain on at least half the days in the past 6 months; that is, a total of at least 3 months’ worth of pain days in the last 6 months, according to the NIH.
It would appear that Miller is closing in on the six month mark of the definition, but what is not known is how much or how often it affected him during the offseason.
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