Hoby Milner

From BR Bullpen

Hoby Trey Milner

BR page

Biographical Information[edit]

The son of big leaguer Brian Milner, pitcher Hoby Milner made his minor league debut in 2012 and reached the majors in 2017.

Amateur Career[edit]

Milner had a 6-1, 0.77 record as a high school junior. His senior year, he went 9-2 and hit .559 with 6 home runs. Collegiate Baseball named him a second-team high school All-American. He was selected by the Washington Nationals in the 44th round of the 2009 amateur draft. He did not sign, opting to attend the University of Texas instead. Milner was 3-1 with a 1.97 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 32 innings as a freshman. He played for the Santa Barbara Foresters in the California Collegiate League, going 4-0 with a save and 2.78 ERA. He was named the Top Professional Prospect in the National Baseball Congress World Series. His sophomore season, he was excellent, going 7-4 with a save, 2.45 ERA and .201 opponent average in 32 games (9 starts). He pitched 2 2/3 shutout innings in the 2011 College World Series. As a junior at Texas, Hoby remained sharp at 7-4, 2.65 with 3 saves, a 2.15 opponent average and 68 K to 19 walks in 71 2/3 innings pitched. He made second-team All-Big 12 Conference.

Minors[edit]

He was then chosen by the Philadelphia Phillies in the seventh round of the 2012 amateur draft. He soon signed and made his pro debut on June 20th with the Williamsport Crosscutters. He had a great day, with 3 hitless, scoreless innings of relief to pick up the win over the State College Spikes; he walked one and fanned four. He was first used as a starter by the Phillies, going 12-7, 3.83 for the Clearwater Threshers of the Florida State League in 2013 and 10-6, 4.21 for the Reading Fightin Phils in 2014, pitching 143 1/3 innings both years. However, his career stalled a bit after the Phillies decided to convert him to a reliever in 2014, when 27 of his 29 appearances with Reading came in relief and he went 2-1, 3.69. After starting the 2015 season in AAA with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, he was sent back down to AA after a couple of weeks and did well in his third go-round with Reading, with a record of 5-3, 1.84 in 38 games, before finishing the year back in AAA. His ERA was 4.50 in 16 innings in the International League.

In 2017, he once again started the season in Lehigh Valley and did well over 22 appearances there, going 1-2 with a 2.60 ERA over 27 2/3 innings to earn a first call-up to the majors that June.

Majors[edit]

Milner made his major league debut with the Phillies on June 24, 2017 and went on to have a solid first season in the big leagues, making 37 appearances, all in relief and putting up an excellent ERA of 2.01. In 31 1/3 innings, he struck out 22 batters while walking 16. He had no decisions, being often used as a LOOGY. He was then a busy man in the early days of the 2018 season, as new manager Gabe Kapler used him in each of his team's first three games. In the third of these appearances, on March 31st, against the Atlanta Braves, he came in under less than ideal cicumstances. Kapler had seen enough of starting pitcher Vince Velasquez, as he had given up 5 runs in 2 2/3 innings, and came out of the dugout to make a pitching change. Problem was, Milner had just gotten up to start his warm-up tosses in the bullpen and was nowhere near ready to come into the game. Realizing his mistake, Kapler tried to stall for time, but the umpires reacted by just cutting the number of warm-up pitches Milner was allowed to make on the game mound, following the new instructions issued by Major League Baseball to speed up mid-inning pitching changes. The first two batters reached against Milner, resulting in two more runs, before he got Preston Tucker to ground out to end the inning. He only pitched 10 times for the Phillies that year, with an ERA of 7.71 in 4 2/3 innings before he went back to the minors and his contract was sold to the Tampa Bay Rays on July 15th. He pitched another 2 2/3 innings with the Rays, with a 6.75 ERA.

He then had trouble staying in the majors over the next two years, making just 4 appearances in the Show with the Rays in 2019, and then pitching 19 times for the Los Angeles Angels in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. His ERA was 7.36 and 8.10, respectively, in those two years, and in spite of Major League Baseball bringing in the three-batter rule, his usage was still largely that of a LOOGY, with many fewer innings than appearances. In 2021, he managed to invert that ratio for the first time, pitching 21 2/3 innings in 19 appearances for the Milwaukee Brewers, and there were some other promising signs. For one, his K/W ratio was an excellent 30/3, and while his ERA of 5.40 dis not seem to be anything to write home about, it was actually his best since his rookie season. However, he was already 30 and had yet to establish himself as more than a AAAA player.

2022 turned out to be a belated breakout season for Hoby as he became a productive member of the Brewers' bullpen, going 3-3, 3.76 in 67 games with 64 strikeouts and just 15 walks in 64 2/3 innings. In 2023, he did even better, lowering his ERA to 1.2 and going 2-1 in a career-high 73 outings. He appeared in the postseason for the first time, pitching twice against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Wild Card Series, turning out 2 1/3 scoreless innings. He made another 61 appearances in 2024, and while he did record his first career save in pitching the 10th inning of a 2-1 win over the San Diego Padres on April 19th, he was not as sharp as the two previous seasons, and also missed over three weeks of action in August with an injury. He also made the first start of his career, working 2 innings as an opener against the Texas Rangers on June 25th. He finished at 5-1, 4.73, but his rate stats were almost identical to those of his more successful 2023 season, so there was a bit of bad luck involved. He was not used in the postseason as the Brewers made another quick exit, suffering a heart-breaking loss to the New York Mets in the Wild Card Series.

Following the 2024 season, Milner became a free agent and for the first time could look for a deal as an established major league pitcher, and not as someone hanging on to save his career. On December 19th, he signed a one-year contract with his hometown team, the Texas Rangers.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Manny Randhawa and Kennedi Landry: "Rangers reach deal with left-hander Milner", mlb.com, December 19, 2024. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

Retrieved from "https://www.baseball-reference.com/bpv/index.php?title=Hoby_Milner&oldid=1403120"
Create a new username