The Cubs designated infielder Owen Miller for assignment on August 21, closing the book on one of the shortest big-league stints you'll see this season. Chicago had selected his contract from Triple-A Iowa just days earlier, on August 17, after Dansby Swanson landed on the injured list and the club wanted a proper backup shortstop behind Nico Hoerner.
Miller got into exactly one game as a Cub — Monday's 7-5 extra-innings win over the White Sox, where he played second base in the 10th inning. That was it. No hits, no at-bats even, just a defensive cameo before the DFA hammer came down.
The move wasn't really about Miller underperforming — he'd been raking at Iowa, hitting.296/.350/.457 with 7 homers, 26 doubles and 10 steals across 96 games. It was about the Cubs finding a better fit. Chicago claimed infielder Gabriel Arias off waivers from the Mets this week, and Arias — who has real experience at shortstop — gives the club a sturdier fallback option than Miller, who's logged plenty of minor-league shortstop reps but had all of 8 career big-league innings there.
Miller's road to this point has been a well-traveled one. San Diego drafted him in the third round back in 2018, and he's since bounced through Cleveland, Milwaukee and Colorado before signing a minor-league deal with the Cubs in February. He played sparingly for each stop — just 9 games with the Rockies in 2025 — and now, at 29, he's out of minor-league options, which means Chicago had to bump him off the 40-man roster rather than simply option him back down.
With Arias now in the fold and Kevin Alcántara still a possible option candidate, the Cubs are clearly prioritizing defensive flexibility at shortstop as they navigate the stretch run without Swanson. For Miller, it means waiting to see if another club puts in a waiver claim — or if his brief taste of the majors this year ends up being the last line on his 2026 stat sheet.