MIAMI -- It's coming up on a year since Cleveland Indians All-Star reliever Andrew Miller looked angry and bewildered talking to media at his locker at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., shortly after getting news that he'd been traded.

On July 31, 2016, Miller was mad at the Yankees for opting for a quickie divorce to end what had been a very happy marriage.

"From my perspective, I signed with the Yankees and I expected to be there for four years for a lot of reasons," Miller told NJ Advance Media on Tuesday before closing out the American League's 2-1, 10-inning win in the 2017 All-Star Game. "I liked my teammates. I like New York. I liked living in New York. I liked having spring training in Tampa.

"When that rug is pulled out from under you, it's the reality of the business, but I think you're allowed to cope for a moment."

Miller knew what was going on -- the Yankees were a .500 club that wanted to get younger before last year's Aug. 1 trade deadline and he was a chip that could (and would) bring blue-chip prospects -- but the rejection initially was still hard to accept.

And, again, this is a guy who loved everything about being a Yankee.

And he was so great at his job in pinstripes that when he left, he arguably was the best reliever in baseball.

Miller may still hold that title.

It didn't take Miller long to move on because he joined an Indians club that was on its way to winning a division title, and his addition to the bullpen would play a huge role in the Tribe getting to the World Series and taking the Chicago Cubs to seven games.

"I got really lucky to end up on a great team and have a great playoff run," Miller said.

Miller is living in the present, but hasn't forgotten his past.

Hanging on a wall in his man cave is a picture of him with Aroldis Chapman and Dellin Betances before a game in Chicago last season. The photo is signed by all three and a reminder of his short time making up a third of probably the most dominate three-headed, late-inning bullpen monster that the game ever has known.

Miller loved the nickname that they three were known as, too ... No Runs DMC.

"That was fun," Miller said. "The whole No Runs DMC thing was pretty neat. It was a blast, a fun stretch.

"The main thing that I took away from them was watching the pure stuff those guys have and their ability to compete. I know a lot of people think they just get by because (Chapman and Betances) throw hard, but those two guys want the ball and they put a lot of toll on their bodies doing it. They are two that are about as good as it gets."

The Yankees put them together in December 2015 when trading for Chapman after Miller had starred the previous season closing and Betances was an All-Star setup reliever.

Setting aside their egos for the good of the club, Betances was fine moving into a seventh-inning role and Miller was happy to slide into the setup role to make room for Chapman.

This trio was great together, but they weren't together three full months when broken up. Chapman was suspended for the first month of the season, then gone by July 25 as the first big fish traded away.

Chapman wound up re-signing with the Yankees last winter, but Miller probably is gone for good.

"I wish it would have been longer to be honest," said Betances, who was a teammate to Miller again this week for the All-Star Game. "We were together for a couple months as something special collectively. If we were winning after five innings, we pretty much won the game. That's always a good feeling to have when you have three guys in the back of the bullpen that most of the time are shutdown guys."

Looking back, Miller now sees his trade as a win-win.

The Indians are better with him, and the Yankees have been better since kickstarting a youth moment that has Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez up from the minors and already All-Stars plus a loaded farm system that added a four-prospect stash acquired from Cleveland.

""Obviously, they've done a good job of scouting and developing," Miller said. "What Gary Sanchez did last year, what Judge is doing this year ... Luis Severino is an All-Star. You don't have proven commodities like the old Yankee way, which was go out and get the All-Star players that were last year with a different team and you have almost predictable production. It's really just a credit to how they're preparing their players."

Meantime, Miller is loving life again as a Cleveland Indian.

"Cleveland is a very different city from New York," Miller said. "It's definitely a change of pace. We have a house with a yard and you have a car to drive and all those kinds of nice things. It's been a great landing spot. It's been a great city to be part of and I expect big things out of us still."

Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.