This story is excerpted from Kennedi Landry’s Rangers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, Click here. and Subscribe to to get it in your inbox regularly.
ARLINGTON β Chris Young doesn’t exactly remember the first time he met Brad Miller, but he assumes it was a high-energy interaction.
Young, now Rangers general manager, was at the end of his playing career and spent a single season with the Mariners in 2014. That year, a 23-year-old Miller entered his first full season in the big league, having made his debut in June of the previous year.
Now eight years away from being teammates, Young is Miller’s “boss” as general manager and was also proud to be Miller’s 1,000. career game in Texas’ loss to the Nationals Friday night at Globe Life Field. Miller became the 69th active player to reach 1,000 career games after a 1-on-4 performance at left field.
“I remember just dating Brad at the time,” Young explained. βHe was really positive, had good energy day in and day out and showed up with just the right attitude. He was not afraid of work and had a winning mentality.
“That’s what I really appreciate about him as a teammate and of course what I see in him now – and one of the reasons we brought him here. There’s something special about getting a tag in the big leagues, let alone 1,000 of them. It’s a very special achievement for Brad and I think he has a lot of good games ahead of him as well.”
Along with Miller, Young isn’t the only one with prior experience. Manager Chris Woodward has served in several roles in the Mariners organization, including serving as minor league infield coordinator, big league infield coach, and first base coach from 2012 to 2015.
He observed Miller’s formative years through Seattle’s farm system. Miller, Woodward said, is exactly the same person and player that he was as a double-A shortstop all those years ago.
“I have a hard time believing it was 1,000 games,” Woodward said. “He seems to be the same guy. The fact that he’s been in the big leagues for almost nine or ten years is kind of confusing to me because it still seems the same. The same [electric] Guy who will just run through a wall for you. He has the same energy every day, you could swear this guy was on some kind of drug every day. It’s just in his DNA. That comes to mind, but I don’t have a concrete story. That same energy hasn’t passed from the second I met him to this day.”
Miller is always energetic in a Rangers clubhouse filled with players leading by example. He demonstrates the vocal leadership every team needs, and he embraces it.
He’s never won a World Series or been in an All-Star Game, but a career like Miller’s, spanning 10 years and 1,000 games across seven organizations, speaks a lot. When asked what the highlight of his career had been so far, he thought for more than a few seconds.
His debut, a warm summer day in Seattle, comes to mind automatically. But he quickly corrected course to a doubleheader against the Nationals in 2021 while he was a member of the Phillies.
“It was just kind of a little microcosm of facing adversity,” Miller explained. βI went into the second game of a doubleheader and we were seven down. I had hit a few times but we ended up fighting back at the bottom of the last inning. I ended up getting a walk-off grand slam. They walked the pitcher [Aaron Nola] to come to me. All the pain throughout the day, the strikeouts, failing only to end up bouncing back and winning the game for my team, I think it’s worth all the bad times.”
After 1,000 games, Miller has compiled 713 hits, 394 RBIs, and 122 home runs. He has played every position on the field except pitcher and catcher. He’s not the biggest star, but he may be the biggest personality in any field. And he accepts that.
“That’s definitely something I don’t take for granted,” Miller said. “Hopefully I’ll think about it when I’m done playing. It’s interesting because you never figured it out, right? It’s such a challenging game. There are so many things thrown at you. I just love that part. Ups and downs, facing challenges and overcoming them. It’s like surviving and fighting through adversity. I just think at the end of my career I’d like to say I just kept fighting.”