Red Sox pitcher ‘traded here for reason,’ ready to help after (mini) Masters tourney

Sidearmer Wyatt Mills is back after almost two years of rehab and competing in the Masters Tournament.

Well, not that Masters.

The Red Sox acquired Mills, now 30, from the Royals for minor league pitcher Jacob Wallace on Dec. 16, 2022. Boston was excited about him being a weapon out of the bullpen in 2023. The righty drew comparisons to John Schreiber because of their similar arm angles and same repertoire (four-seamer, sinker, slider). One Red Sox official at that time thought he might even have better stuff than Schreiber.

But he got hurt during spring training and underwent Tommy John surgery in July 2023.

He spent the last two summers here at the JetBlue Park complex in Fort Myers recovering and rehabbing. Being here doing the same thing every day in the heat can get monotonous. So he and others down here, including rehabbing pitcher Michael Fulmer and some players on the minor league side, joined a bowling league and took part in a putt putt golf tournament to pass the time. They “made the best of it,” as Mills put it.

“We went to five or six of the different (miniature golf) places around here,” Mills said Friday here at JetBlue Park. “We had a full leaderboard and everything. I actually did a write-up memo, a weekly update on how things went to fill in the training staff and all the other players.

"We we ended it with having the Masters at PopStroke," Mills added. “So everyone had to dress up. Played 36 holes and it was a good time.”

Mills is having a strong spring. He has allowed just one run, two hits and one walk while striking out six in four outings (4 ⅔ innings).

“I’m excited,” he said. “I was traded over here for a reason. I know what I’m capable of. And I’m just ready to be a part of a team to help them win. I know that this team is really bolstered up to be a serious problem for the league. And I just want to be a part of that. I just want to continue to take what I’ve been doing here and bottle it up and just go be myself and trust in that. And if I get a lot of chances to help this team, that’s fantastic.”

Mills called Fulmer “quite the bowler.”

“He actually has his own balls. A lot of sneaky good bowlers around here," Mills said.

The bowling league took a backseat in Mills' life in July for a great reason.

“I also started a family,” he said. “So there was a lot of life things."

He and wife had a baby girl last summer.

“They were here with me,” Mills said. “We actually had the baby here in July. It made time go by as well."

There’s never a good time to be injured but being with his family full-time (instead of traveling with a team on the road) worked out quite well.

“It was just perfect timing to where, OK, I’m rehabbing and I have most of the day after my work’s done to go home,” he said. “I know we’re going to be in the same place all year. Kind of a calm in the storm during my career where we’re in one place for one time.”

While he took a backseat in the bowling league to be with his family, he said his other teammates ”took off with it.”

Mills was on the 40-man roster (but technically on the 60-day IL) throughout the entire 2023 season. Boston non-tendered him Nov. 17, 2023, then signed him to a unique two-year minor league contract the next day. It allowed him to rehab with the organization and get ready for 2025.

For Mills, it almost feels like a million years ago when he last pitched. He last appeared in a major league game Sept. 3, 2022.

“It’s just long summers of being here,” Mills said. “But now that I’m back in the routine, it’s back to old times, which feels good.”

Mills said he is “pleasantly surprised” by the results here in spring training games.

“I know that my stuff before getting hurt played at the highest level,” he said. “It’s really hard to take two years off and come back and just expect to be exactly what you were or better. And I’m really pleased. I feel like I put in a lot of hard work and it’s hard to trust in it but now I’m finally starting to see it and it’s like, OK. I did work hard. I improved my stuff. And at least for the spring, I’m consistent. I’m more consistent than I was. And I feel like that’s just the ability to take a year and a half to work on that."

He went from a three-pitch pitcher to a four-pitch pitcher.

He calls his four-seam fastball “his bread and butter.”

"The slider, I changed a little bit of the grip to make it a little bit more consistent," he said.

He used Trackman data to focus on the pitch shape and tinker with it.

“Same with the sinker. Changed the grip. Let’s get it more consistent. Consistent shapes,” Mills said. “And then I added a changeup. That’s always been something I’ve tried to do in my career and never been able to do it. I’ve finally been throwing it against big league hitters and getting more comfortable with it. Hopefully that’s a big weapon against lefties this year."

His four-seam velo is right where it’s always been. He’s in the 90-93 mph range while occasionally showing 94-95 mph.

“They want me in 94-plus, and I understand that because it amplifies everything else,” he said. “But I know that if I’m where I’m at now, I’m seeing it get outs and I’m seeing it be really hard to hit, especially just with the deception."

Mills said he‘s prepared to experience ups and downs coming off an injury.

"I know I’m gonna need to prove over a long period of time that I can be consistent,“ he said. ”But whatever that is, that’s their choice. When my name gets called, happy to go out there and help the team."

He didn’t necessarily come to spring training camp with high expectations of making the Opening Day roster.

“I came in to pitch well — feel well, pitch well,” Mills said. “Try to take the expectation away from me. But now that I’ve seen myself throw it really well, I mean, that would be amazing. But there’s a lot that goes into that. I just know that I just need to focus day by day and take care of my body and be ready to go.”