Miles Mikolas played seven seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals across eight years, missing the 2020 season. This year, he left St. Louis for the first time since his return to Major League Baseball, after spending three seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball. The Washington Nationals designated Mikolas for assignment shortly after he reached 10 years of service time.
Mikolas was the seventh-round pick of the San Diego Padres in the 2009 MLB draft and would make his debut in 2012. After just 27 appearances in two seasons with the Padres, he was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in November of 2013. Mikolas would spend just over a month with the Pirates before being sent to the Texas Rangers , who would release him after the 2014 campaign.
Mikolas spent three seasons in Japan and would return to MLB after posting a 2.34 ERA with the Yomiuri Giants. The team that welcomed him back was the Cardinals, and the right-hander rewarded them with the best season of his career. A 2.83 ERA, led the league with 18 wins, earned his first All-Star nod, and finished sixth in the Cy Young race in the National League.
He would earn one more All-Star selection in 2022, but his ERA hovered around five in his final three seasons with St. Louis and was 5.82 this year with Washington. On August 6, Mikolas reached 10 years of service time, a monumental achievement following his rocky start. He celebrated with a custom belt buckle, Nationals TV reporter Alexa Datt posted on X.
Mikolas is 37 and will be turn 38 later this month, the market is not strong for an aging pitcher whose best years are well behind him. After reaching the achievement so many big leaguers aspire to reach, fewer than 10% of all players to step on a big league field reach 10 years of service , Mikolas has his keystone achievement.
If this is the end of Mikolas' career, the turnaround since his release by the Rangers is one of baseball beauty. No matter the circumstance he was able to grind through and corrected course to put his career on track.
Mikolas could be an option for a team that is searching for bridge to their future as they develop at the lower levels. He made 25 appearances as 11 starts this season and during his time in St. Louis made 30 or more starts every year aside from those he was sidelined due to injury. For teams looking for a back end starter to eat innings Mikolas could be a viable option. But with his performances over the last four years being subpar, teams might shy away from the aging veteran, leading to his quiet exit from the game of baseball.
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