Cardinals reliever Andrew Miller battled coronavirus before spring training

MLB: Game Two-St. Louis Cardinals at Pittsburgh Pirates

St. Louis Cardinals relief pitcher Andrew Miller of Gainesville, FL battled coronavirus before attending training camp according to Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  Miller, who is 35 years of age, is entering his third season as a top setup option in the Cardinals bullpen.

Last season in 16 games, Miller had a record of one win and one loss, four saves, two holds, with an earned run average of 2.77. In 13 innings pitched, he gave up four earned runs, and five walks, along with 16 strikeouts. Miller also had a WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) of 1.08.

Miller tested positive for coronavirus 10 days prior to the date that the Cardinals pitchers and catchers were scheduled to report for training camp. The positive diagnosis for Miller is just the latest example that the United States is experiencing a very serious pandemic and the fact that coronavirus still needs to be taken extremely seriously.

There have been 1,898,223 cases of coronavirus in the state of Florida, with 30,626 deaths. There are also 763,653 active cases, while 1,103, 944 Floridians have recovered. In the last 24 hours, there have been 5,922 new cases of coronavirus in the Sunshine State, and 141 deaths.

Miller joins fellow Cardinals relievers John Gant of Savannah, GA; Alex Reyes of Elizabeth, NJ; Genesis Cabrera and Junior Fernandez of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; Jake Woodford of Tampa, FL; Seth Elledge of Frisco, TX; Giovany Gallegos of Obregon, Mexico; Kodi Whitley of Clayton, NC; and Tyler Webb of Nassawadox, VA expected to make the team in 2021. Even though Gallegos was designated as the Cardinals closer in 2020, he tied Miller for the team lead in saves with four.

Heading into the season, there was some speculation that Austin Gomber of Winter Garden, FL, might battle for the closer job for the Cardinals this season as he had a marvelous earned run average of 1.86 last year. However, that will not be the case as Gomber was the top player traded from the Cardinals to the Colorado Rockies in the offseason Nolan Arenado blockbuster deal.

 

Arrow to top