The two greatest closers of all-time agree: Andrew Miller is unbelievable

CHICAGO — They weren’t here for the Andrew Miller show, but then again, the Andrew Miller show isn’t exactly an opt-in experience.

As the Cleveland Indians and their brilliant manager Terry Francona have proven time and time again this postseason, Miller Time can happen anytime, whether you want it or not. Whether the Chicago Cubs, Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox have wanted it or not.

As it was, Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman, two closers so good that Major League Baseball named its annual relief pitcher awards after them, arrived at Wrigley Field on Saturday with a different mission. But trying to avoid Andrew Miller in the World Series is like trying to hit Andrew Miller. You know, difficult.

Rivera and Hoffman handed out the trophies given in their name — the AL and NL Relief Pitchers of the Year, presented by The Hartford. Zach Britton won in the AL and Kenley Jansen in the NL, two very fine pitchers with fantastic seasons. But neither was as dynamic in the postseason as Miller has been. Britton never even got the chance.

Miller is one of the main reasons the Indians are a game away from winning the World Series against the Cubs. Maybe the biggest reason. He allowed his first run of the entire postseason in a Game 4 win on Saturday while also setting a record for most strikeouts in a single postseason by a reliever. But what’s really made him fantastic is his versatility.

Some days he’ll pitch the seventh, some days the eighth. Twice he’s been called out in the fifth. Once he’s pitched the ninth. His role is only defined by when the Indians most need the outs. He’s pitched eight times and every single time has been asked to get more than three outs.

“Amazing,” Rivera said about Miller. “To do the job that he had done in the playoffs, I love it. I enjoy seeing pitchers do that kind of job. He’s great.”

“I see a kid,” Hoffman said, “that has completely bought in to his ability to impact a game whenever he’s asked to do it and is willing to do it. He completely checks his ego at the door.”

Make no mistake, Miller has every bit of the stuff needed to be a closer in modern MLB. He actually won the AL Reliever of the Year in 2015 when the New York Yankees had him pitching more like a traditional closer.

But then he was traded to Cleveland in July and the Indians’ coaching staff threw out the window the traditional philosophy that your best relief pitcher should get the last three outs. Sometimes, the Indians think, the most important outs might be in a tough situation in the seventh. Or in the fifth, against the middle of the lineup, where Miller would toss two bridge innings between the Indians starter and they’re two other go-to relievers Bryan Shaw and Cody Allen.

Which brings up an interesting question for our two legendary closers: How would you respond if you were asked to pitch in the fifth inning?

“Honestly, I’d have a hard time with it,” says Hoffman, who is second all-time with 601 saves. “I don’t know if I’d be able to be as unselfish as Andrew’s been. Hats off goes to the way he’s handled this opportunity. His ability to handle what’s being thrown at him is amazing.”

That response from Hoffman is because he’s a tried-and-true closer. He dominated the save era, spending 17 of his 18 years locking down the ninth. It’s what he knows. What the game taught him was crucial. Rivera, whose postseason legacy is defined by the four- or five-out save, sees much more of the other school of thought.

“You’re talking about the playoffs,” said Rivera, the only man with more saves than Hoffman, with 652. “There’s no tomorrow. Whatever you need to do, you get it done. Your team needs you. They don’t need you for one out. They need you for several innings and several outs.”

As successful as Rivera was and Miller is right now, Hoffman’s view is still what dominates Major League Baseball. It’s why Cubs closer Aroldis Chapman has only pitched in two of their four World Series games thus far and why Britton never left the bullpen in the Baltimore Orioles’ wild-card loss, even though they were many moments he could have helped his team.

The “when to use your best reliever” question might be the biggest subplot of the entire baseball postseason with Britton and Miller as the two opposite ends of the spectrum. The new-school, numbers-driven crowd says use your best guy in the biggest moment, when the most is on the line. The old-school, traditional crowd says the final three outs are paramount and that save stat is essential.

Not just for baseball convention either. For money too. Closers get paid. Middle relievers, well, unless they’re Miller or Darren O’Day — both of whom make closer money — life isn’t as grand. So that’s another way the Indians’ radical use of Miller is disrupting how we’ve viewed relief pitchers and bullpen roles.

“We’re all creatures of habit,” Hoffman said. “We all want as much structure as we can in a very unstructured business.”

Andrew Miller is most certainly the outlier here. Baseball teams can’t simply take their closer and start pitching him in the fifth or seventh inning next season, trying to mimic what the Indians have done. This isn’t the wildcat offense.

It’s the Andrew Miller show. And it’s got the Indians one win away from everything.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz