Aidan Miller used his time in Phillies camp to study Bryce Harper and learn from a ‘welcoming clubhouse’

CLEARWATER, Fla. — Aidan Miller was sitting at his locker, on his first day in big-league camp, when a player walked across the room.

It was Bryce Harper. The Phillies first baseman introduced himself, made a little small talk, and went about his business. The gesture was small, but meaningful. At age 20, Miller was the youngest person in the clubhouse. Harper was his favorite player growing up.

“I was kind of nervous to go up to guys, and be like, ‘Hey, I’m Aidan,’” said Miller, who is the Phillies’ No. 2 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. “But a lot of the players approached me themselves, which I thought was really cool.

“[Fellow prospect Justin] Crawford and I were talking about it the other day. It was a welcoming clubhouse. And that’s all we really know.”

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Miller tried not to bombard Harper, or any other Phillies veterans, with questions. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t learn anything during his time on the big-league side.

The prospect, who was sent to minor-league camp on Tuesday, said he tried to study the habits of the team’s superstars. And most of that studying happened in the morning, at the batting cage.

Miller, a first-round pick of the Phillies in 2023, focused on Harper and Kyle Schwarber, specifically. He’d wait until he heard the sound of their swings — “it’s just different,” Miller said — and make his way over to the cage.

“I’d just sit and watch,” Miller said. “Those guys go in there with a purpose. They’re not just in there swinging. Harper’s a great example of that. A lot of guys, especially young guys, can hit for two hours, but they don’t really accomplish anything.

“He doesn’t take many swings, but every swing has a lot of intent behind it. And it just goes to show, that’s why he’s so good.”

Miller tried to be more intentional with his own cage work. He worked closely with hitting coach Kevin Long and assistant hitting coach Dustin Lind, challenging himself with the high-velocity machines.

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His favorite was called “the ladder drill.” Lind would crank the machine up and have Miller stand at home plate. Every time he barreled a ball, he’d take a step closer to the machine.

“So you keep getting closer and closer and closer,” Miller said. “That’s something I’m still doing now. It just really gets your body going, gets you ready for game-like situations. You can go in the cage, take some flips, do regular live BP, but it gets easy after a while.

“I think when you’re really challenging yourself, that’s when you notice improvements.”

Miller said the drill has helped him with just about everything. His timing is better, and his eyes are more acclimated to the kinds of speeds he’d face in a big-league game. He saw this firsthand during his time playing in the Grapefruit League.

The prospect didn’t record a hit — he went 0-for-9 over six games — but felt like he was seeing the ball better. He collected three walks with three strikeouts.

“On the hitting side, it wasn’t the best, but, you know, it’s spring training,” Miller said. “It’s still super early in the season. I was trying not to look at my stats too much, but obviously, being the youngest guy, I wanted to go in there and impress right away. But it didn’t happen.

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“I actually felt pretty good at the plate. Just wasn’t getting results.”

The Phillies aren’t concerned, either. They’re confident Miller will return to his power-hitting self soon. Manager Rob Thomson said on Wednesday he was impressed with the prospect, and joked that he’ll “get another hit at some point.”

“I know Miller didn’t get any hits, but he’s going to hit,” Thomson said.

Miller also spent his time in big-league camp studying his teammates’ infield defense. He said Trea Turner, Alec Bohm, and Bryson Stott’s movements looked “effortless” to him — something you don’t always see in the minor leagues.

“You have a lot of young guys take infield and they’re shuffling their feet all over the place,” Miller said. “They have crazy, flashy hands, but those guys get to the ball, they catch it, they transfer, they throw, and they just make it look so easy.”

Miller feels like he got nothing short of a big-league education over the past few weeks, and is excited to put it to good use.

“I feel like I learned so much in such a little time,” he said. “Really from observing and how they go about their business, how they approach their days, how they get ready for games, really, everything.”