At Yasmani Grandal's urging, Mitch Keller goes outside comfort zone to throw cutter

BRADENTON, Fla. — The Pittsburgh Pirates put their $77 million starting pitcher on the mound for the Grapefruit League home opener, then their new catcher put Mitch Keller to a test.

Two days after Keller signed a five-year contract — a franchise-record deal, in terms of average annual value — Yasmani Grandal challenged him to throw his cutter outside both the strike zone and his comfort zone.

It was a message that seemed foreign to the 27-year-old right-hander after being encouraged by the Pirates to stay in the strike zone to reduce his walks.

Keller followed the 12-year veteran catcher’s advice and found value in the sequencing success while tossing two scoreless innings in a 2-0 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday afternoon before 6,469 at LECOM Park.

“We were on the same page the whole time and had a really good game plan,” said Keller, who threw the cutter on 11 of his 30 pitches, almost 13% more usage than last season. “We threw a lot more cutters to righties than I ever have, but just talking to him about how it plays with the sinker, it’s really good. I’m excited to see where that goes.”

Pirates ace Mitch Keller’s first pitch against Baltimore’s Colton Cowser in Grapefruit League home opener at LECOM Park in Bradenton. pic.twitter.com/YUB7TN0BFp

— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) February 25, 2024

Pirates ace Mitch Keller on catcher Yasmani Grandal encouraging him to throw a pitch outside his comfort zone. pic.twitter.com/iUKvFLwlmp

— Kevin Gorman (@KevinGormanPGH) February 25, 2024

The downside was Keller allowed a pair of walks, including one to leadoff batter Colton Cowser after working him to an 0-2 count. Cowser took his full-count cutter above the zone for ball four, but Keller rebounded by getting Ryan Mountcastle to ground into a double play and using the cutter to set up a strikeout of James McCann.

Keller went sinker-cutter to get an 0-2 count against McCann, then paired the pitches again for three consecutive foul balls before getting him swinging at a sweeper outside. Four of Keller’s six pitches were outside the zone, which was by Grandal’s design.

After catching his bullpen session and live batting practice at Pirate City, Grandal saw Keller show off a six-pitch arsenal that can attack all four quadrants of the strike zone. What Grandal also noticed is Keller concentrated on throwing strikes. So Grandal wanted him to understand that he can also play pitches off a miss and get batters to chase outside the zone.

“Everybody wants to throw strikes,” Grandal told TribLive. “The really, really good pitchers make hitters chase outside the strike zone and make every pitch they’re throwing look like a strike and, at the end of it, it’s going to be a ball. He pounds the strike zone. Now, having him make everything look like a strike and end up being a ball, the more guys chase outside the strike zone, batting averages go down, slugging goes down, hard-hit rate goes down and strikeouts go up. I’m not saying that we’re going to start throwing balls but, in the right situation, we don’t always have to throw a strike.”

When Keller became an All-Star last year, he credited catcher Austin Hedges for helping with his pitch calling. Now, Keller is learning nuances from the 35-year-old Grandal, a two-time All-Star who signed with the Pirates for $2.5 million plus incentives.

“As we see the maturation of Mitch, we’re going to be able to use his pitches differently,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “You get a veteran catcher who understands how pitches should be used and what the action should be … and they’re developing a relationship and a rapport. So to have a conversation about how they’re going to manipulate it, that’s good.”

Keller used the cutter to set up another strikeout in the second inning, throwing it in the dirt on a 2-2 pitch to Jordan Westburg and following with a belt-high, 95.2 mph four-seam fastball to get him swinging. Jorge Mateo roped a double to center, and Sam Hilliard drew a four-pitch walk before Nick Maton lined out to Rowdy Tellez at first base.

Where Keller went heavy on cutters and sinkers — throwing the latter nine times — he complemented it with six four-seamers, three sweepers and a changeup he called “terrible.” Keller actually was disappointed when Heston Kjerstad hit his first-pitch cutter for a groundout in the second because Grandal planned to call for a cutter on the next pitch.

“Obviously he thinks this would work really well, and it showed really good results today,” Keller said. “With some of the takes and bad swings we were getting on it, I’m really excited to see where that goes.”

Notes: The Orioles took a 1-0 lead when Coby Mayo scored on a throwing error by shortstop Sergio Alcantara in the seventh, then added another run in the ninth on an RBI single by Maverick Handley. … Right-hander Roansy Contreras is expected to start against Yusei Kikuchi on Monday when the Pirates play the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin.