Yankees get a true relief ace in Andrew Miller

The Yankees on Friday agreed to terms with lefty reliever Andrew Miller on a four-year, $36-million contract. In doing so, they're adding a shutdown reliever to the fold.

Miller, 29, is coming off a 2014 season for the Red Sox and Orioles in which he pitched to a 2.02 ERA (193 ERA+) and struck out 103 batters against just 15 unintentional walks and gave up just three home runs in 62 1/3 innings. Needless to say, that's dominance.

Miller, the sixth overall pick of the 2006 draft (Tigers), didn't pass muster as a big-league starter, but as a reliever he's thrived. In particular, he's been dominant since the start of the 2013 season, when he became, in essence, a two-pitch pitcher ...

As you can see, Miller has pretty much ditched his sinker and changeup and become a strict fastball-slider guy. In a left-hander, that kind of repertoire could be limiting and relegate him to a LOOGY role. In Miller's case, however, his slider plays against the opposite side, thus giving him two wipeout offerings against right-handers.

Speaking of that slider and speaking of the opposite side, last season Miller went to his slide-piece a hefty 40.82 percent of the time against righties, which makes for a career high. By comparison, in 2011, the last season in which Miller made a start, he threw his slider to right-handers just 20.71 percent of the time. In 2010, that figure was 8.82 percent. As further evidence of his increasing confidence in the slider, he threw first-pitch sliders to right-handers more than a quarter of the time in 2014.

Moreover, this confidence is justified. Last season, right-handed batters whiffed on Miller's slider 26.4 percent of the time, and no righty homered off of it. In matters related, RHBs in 2014 batted .090 and slugged .119 against Miller's slider. Throw in 2013, and RHBs are hitting .117 AVG/.158 SLG against Miller's slider over the last two seasons. All of this is to say, Miller's lefty slider, a pitch normally not all that effective against the opposite hand, is in reality a genuine weapon. The upshot? Miller struck out 38.2 percent of the right-handed hitters he faced this past season, and they managed a line of just .142/.245/.202 against him.

Bottom line? The Steamer system projects Miller for a 2.29 ERA in 2015, which is the seventh-lowest mark of any projected pitcher. He's good, you know. The money's reasonable, especially for a vast-coffered team like the Yankees, and Miller's past arm troubles are limited to a minor elbow issue in the spring of 2012.

All of this means that the Yankees, with Miller and Dellin Betances, now have perhaps the best lefty-righty bullpen combo in all of baseball.

(Doff of tailored hat to Brooks Baseball for much of the data you read above)