"I know what I'm capable of." Versatile Owen Miller seeking to solidify spot with Brewers

PHOENIX -- Everyone knows the Owen Miller story by now.

Local kid makes it to the major leagues, is traded to the hometown Milwaukee Brewers and then positively impacts a playoff-bound team.

Great stuff, to be sure.

But Miller is ready to move beyond that. Now 27 and with 280 games under his belt entering his fourth season, the Fredonia native is eyeing a more prominent role on the Brewers and a more secure spot on the 26-man roster -- and he put the work in over the offseason to help improve those odds.

"I know what I'm capable of," Miller said on Tuesday. "I know that, when I'm playing my type of baseball, I really can impact the team and be valuable."

Miller came over last offseason in exchange for minor-leaguer David Fry and got off to a rousing start, batting .273 in March/April and then a scorching .363 with four home runs, 12 runs batted in and an OPS of .995 in May while also bouncing between second base, third base, left field and right field.

One of Miller's personal highlights came in late June when, playing against his old team at Progressive Field, he lined an RBI double high off the wall in left-center to deliver the Brewers a 5-4 victory over the Guardians in 10 innings.

But after hitting .289 in June, Miller cooled off considerably. A .178 July combined with the trade-deadline acquisitions of Carlos Santana and Mark Canha paved the way for Miller's demotion to Class AAA Nashville, where he finished out the minor-league season before returning to the Brewers for a cup of coffee in September.

"Definitely a lot of ups and definitely some downs," is how he described his year. "It was obviously pretty special having a hot May like that and making an impact early on with the team and playing in front of my hometown. It was definitely the highest of highs (early on), but it's baseball."

Being sent down stung, no question, but Miller -- who finished with a .261/5/27/.674 line in 90 games -- took it in the right way and was determined to come back better for it.

"I'll always go back to work," he said. "I've always just had that blue-collar attitude -- just from a small town in Wisconsin. I've kind of been overlooked at times in my life and I know that there's times where you've just got to get back to work.

"The only thing that you can control is what you're doing on a daily basis."

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This spring, Miller has seen all his action at first and second base and will eventually play some third as well as the Brewers begin sorting through their options at all three positions in earnest.

It's Miller's versatility that makes him valuable. But he's a right-handed hitter whose skill set is similar to several other players in camp. Miller also has a minor-league option remaining which gives the Brewers roster flexibility, but might very well work against him with Jake Bauers and Christian Arroyo -- both veterans who are out of options -- firmly in the mix as well.

To that end, Miller is concentrating this spring on being an impactful player wherever he lines up rather than just being known as a guy who can ably bounce around the diamond.

"I think back in the day, I just was like, 'Oh, I can play multiple positions,'" Miller said. "But in the last year or two, I've really realized that there's a difference between playing multiple positions and actually playing multiple positions like, well."

Miller also did some fine-tuning to his swing in the offseason and, like every hitter, been putting in the time trying to perfect things with hitting coaches Ozzie Timmons and Connor Dawson.

"Worked a lot more on being consistent with my swing," said Miller, who's currently hitting .313 with a triple and tied for the team lead with four RBI. "I think at times, some things can get out of place. I wasn't firing from the right spot at all times. I made some adjustments this offseason, worked at them a lot, and I've been happy so far in spring to see them paying off."

Manager Pat Murphy is a fan of gamers, and Miller fits the bill as far as he's concerned.

"I like everything about the kid," Murphy said. "Like, he's a baseball player. He's been a successful major-league baseball player. He's never really settled in and won a job, so to speak, a 'It's his job to lose type-thing.' But he can play everywhere around the outfield, and when we're drawing up plans on who could really help us, he's one of them.

"So, how it all falls out? We don't quite know. But we're going to try to find the best 13 (position players) for our team and to start the season there's a lot of scenarios where that guy is in there."

Miller marked one career highlight off his list Saturday when he was able to play against his younger brother, Noah, when the Los Angeles Dodgers came to Maryvale.

Now, he has three weeks remaining to lock down his third consecutive opening-day roster spot with the goal of making it an impactful and season-long proposition.

"You 've just got to go in there and work and understand what you need to work on," he said. "I think I did a good job of that this offseason. And I'm trying to keep that going here in spring training, and make a team."

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Versatile Owen Miller seeking to solidify his spot with Brewers