Local pro baseball players will compete in Triple-A to start season

The three local natives who were invited to Major League training camps are starting the seasons with Triple-A baseball teams.

Shortstop Noah Miller, 23, who was promoted to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate Oklahoma City Comets on July 4 last season, will again be a Comet.

In spring training, he hit .270, going 10-for-37, with one home run and five RBIs. His on-base percentage was .372.

Last season, Miller hit .238 with 35 RBIs and four home runs for the Comets. He had a .995 fielding percentage with 76 putouts, 140 assists and one error.

He graduated from Ozaukee High School in 2021. He was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the first round and was traded to the Dodgers in 2024.

His older brother, Owen Miller, 29, was signed by the Chicago Cubs to a minor league deal and was assigned to the Triple-A Iowa Cubs after mostly playing for the Colorado Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate Albuquerque Isotopes last season.

In Cub’s spring training, he hit .267, going 8-for-30, with six RBIs, five runs scored and three steals. His on-base percentage was .351.

Miller hit .277 with 65 RBIs and 11 home runs for the Isotopes. He played 437-1/3 innings at shortstop and had a .967 fielding percentage with 130 putouts, seven assists and seven errors. He played 202-2/3 innings at third base with 38 putouts, 17 assists and four errors. He also played first base, second base, left field and center, and was a designated hitter.

He hit .143 in nine games with the Rockies with one RBI.

Miller graduated from Ozaukee High School in 2015 and played college ball at Illinois State. He was drafted in the third round by the San Diego Padres in 2018, and was traded to Cleveland in 2020, then to Milwaukee. He was traded to the Rockies in 2024.

George Klassen, 24, a 2020 Port High grad, was invited to the Los Angeles Angels’ Major League Camp in Tempe, Ariz.

In spring training, started four of the five games he pitched and went 1-2 with an earned-run average of 6.43. In 14 innings, Klassen whiffed 14 and had a WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) was 1.36.

The right-hander who can throw 100 mph pitched 102-2/3 innings for the Angels’ Double-A affiliate Rocket City Trash Pandas and went 4-12 with a 5.35 earned-run average. He struck out 126 batters, allowed 106 hits, 46 walks and had a 1.48 walks and hits per inning pitched.

He was promoted to the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees last September and went six innings in one start, striking out eight and walking one while allowing six hits and two runs.

Klassen played college ball for the University of Minnesota. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the sixth round in 2023 and traded to the Angels in 2024.